A Dream of Blood and Snow
by Freesourceful
Summary: Fighting against an opponent as strong as herself, to save the Empire, Snow must stop at nothing to prevent the Ritual of Ascension from being completed. An alternate rendition of Dirge. ONGOING—SLOW UPDATES
1. Part I

_Typical Disclaimer: Jade Empire is the intellectual property of Bioware, but in as much as it is possible for to sign away my rights to my writing, this here is all given to the use of the public domain. Descriptions and OC characters are free for public usage. I make no copyright claim on this material whatsoever, excluding whatever rights Bioware chooses to exercise on its original characters & setting.  
_

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**Part I: The Spirit Gate**

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Dreaming Snow fell. Master Li's attack cut through all her defenses; his hands flashed using a technique she did not recognize, could not counter.

He hit all the vital pressure points, stopped her blood hot in its tracks. Zu's words echoed in her mind: _"The Glorious Strategist would never make such a mistake."_ No, there _was_ no mistake in his actions. In one well-plotted coup, Li had pitted his two greatest threats against each other, and walked away the winner.

_I should have seen that…_ she started to think before the world grew hazy and darkness swallowed her.

Snow awoke to a sky full of rain that fell like silver arrows. She felt a little lightheaded and insubstantial, but strangely at peace, as if the Death that she had walked with for so long was never an enemy, but a friend. She stood and look around, finding herself in the midst of a grassy field. The sky was dark with of the spirit of the night, though instinctively, Snow knew this wasn't the kind of place to have either night or day. Overhanging clouds glowed with a purple radiance, and a blue fog rose to cover the horizons. Despite the alien landscape, Snow felt unconcerned. Fear and curiosity were abstract concepts without a body to feel them, though part of her wondered without real heart whether she could find Zu here amongst the dead.

She closed her eyes and let the rain wash her spirit. Now, perhaps, rest at last. Freedom from mortal burdens, the warring desires, the coils of duty that had bound her. She felt a little sorrow for the friends she had left behind, though even that was becoming a faint memory, melting like frost in the blush of spring. She imagined her burdens as unbound shackles floating away into the darkness – and then returned.

Despair slammed into her with the force of physical blows driving her to her knees, unable to move beyond this place in time and return to the Wheel of Life. _Betrayal —vengeance — pain — death — die — kill — kill — KILL!_ The anger and frustration of the dead threatened to swallow her whole_—_ but then peace descended. She felt the onslaught of lift as the presence of the Water Dragon surrounded her like a protective barrier.

_Death has come to you_, said the voice of the Goddess, faint but urgent, _but life _can_be regained. You must end the cycle that was broken and send us all on the path to rebirth. _Snow opened her eyes tentatively, disoriented by the attack The overwhelming feelings of desolation were held back by the Water Dragon's grace.

_I will guide you to through the madness to the light. Follow the pillar of light. _She found the column of light the Water Dragon spoke of and started towards it, drawn despite herself, her feet moving her to the luminescent pillar as if walking in a dream.

_Your master betrayed you, as he once betrayed his brother. A revenge years in the planning. He trained you to fight a tyrant, but with a flaw. He wanted you vulnerable in your moment of triumph. _

Snow's legs propelled her without her bidding through the silver rain which sleeked down her shoulders, down her body. She let her feet guide her, not really sure what awaited her ahead. She tried to recall the events that led her to this place. _Master Li… struck me down_._ Master Li…_ Anger burned within her, not for his betrayal, but for her own blindness and failure to see the inevitable. _He raised me better than this, even if that wasn't his intention. Dawn Star didn't want to believe, but __**I**__ should have known better. I had suspicions when so many things didn't add up, why didn't I pursue the answers? Why didn't I act on my instincts? _The questions stung in her mind, and there was only one answer: _I let personal feelings cloud my judgment. My failure_, she thought, _has now put everyone in jeopardy._ She hated the thought. She had never asked for any of this. The memory of her failures was painful, but the Water Dragon's next words interrupted her self-berating.

_The Dragon Amulet is in his hands, reassembled. He will consume my essence… but all is not lost.__You are not yet lost to the living_. Her hand instinctively went to her throat; the Dragon Amulet was gone. She made the wry observation that despite death, she still retained her human form.

The pillar grew closer and she could see that it extended from a raised stone dais in the center of the field. Along either side lay the desiccated forms of fallen spirits and forgotten war machines, rusted and reclaimed by whatever nature there was to be found in this realm.

Up close, the dais was much larger than it had seemed. The entire structure rose some fifteen feet into the air and stretched perhaps thirty feet across, and each step was a good foot tall. Snow thought she'd be winded by the trip across the meadow and up the steep stairs, but when she finally arrived at the top, she found that she had no breath to lose. On the opposite side of the platform was a swirling blue and purple gate contained in the carved mouth of a dragon. On the floor were various carvings and symbols inlaid in jet that Snow did not recognize and could not read. As she turned her gaze around, the Water Dragon appeared before her in a blaze of azure flame.

Light glimmered around the goddess who floated before her, scaled hands folded into the voluminous blue robes that she wore in her human incarnation. She seemed more solid here than in the visions in the world of the living. Perhaps the death of Sun Hai had restored some of the Water Dragon's power.

"Where am I?" Snow blurted, and though she already knew, she found it a little hard to hold onto solid thoughts as her memories of what had happened flitted too quickly through her mind, darting like shoals in a stream.

_You are dead. You are in what is – was – the memory of the fields of the Imperial Palace. Here, in the Spirit Realm, they still remember the essence of what they once were: fields of blood, loss, and battle. _

"How is it that I still retain my human form? Why am I not a floating spirit, like the others?"

_The soul holds onto its form, even after death. The souls who have lost their forms are mindless, driven mad in my absence. They lose their purpose and will without guidance, without rebirth._

"As I will." Snow said, looking down at her transparent fingers. She could see the stones of the dais through them. "Mindlessness. I guess that's not so bad."

_No. Your master now claims the throne and my power. He will rule as a god… unless he is stopped. In the moment__before Li claimed my power, I was able to summon you here. I must send you to Dirge to cleanse the fountains there._

"Another task? But why me? Why not Dawn Star, or Sun Lian – they are both capable warriors and leaders. And still alive."

The Water Dragon looked at her with eyes filled with ancient pain. Snow felt the heaviness of that gaze echoed in the heaviness of her heart, though feebly, she protested, "I am so very tired, Goddess. I have walked the breadth of the Empire, I have walked through the realms of demons and gods, and I have ridden from the borders to the Imperial Palace itself for you. I have defeated the Emperor and been defeated in turn. Is that not enough? Please, let me rest."

_There are wheels that turn within wheels and deeper fires within. You must, because you are the only one in this world, in this time, who can restore the way of things. Harmony must be returned. Do not think that you are the only one who has been set upon this path. There have been others who did not… choose as well as you._

"I'm dead," said Snow, "how much worse off could we be?"

_I do not have the strength to answer… My power here is weak, but there may yet be hope, though nothing is without its price. Your time here has been wrongly stolen. Set right what has been undone and take back the time you lost. I will open a portal for you to follow. Quickly, I cannot hold the gate open long… Unngh…_

The purple and blue-tinged gate behind the Water Dragon glowed even brighter, almost too bright to look at. The spirit shook with effort, and in the fraction of an instant Snow's future ran through her mind — stay here and become an unfeeling but blessedly mindless spirit, or return to the world which held those she loved and the burdens she had finally escaped. _Time to make up for what I lost… but to have to fight Master Li…_ She didn't want to decide.

_You don't deserve to feel sorry for yourself._

In the next instant Snow was running forward, racing against the Water Dragon's faltering strength as the portal began to close. She leapt, diving head-first into the swirling uncertain future of the spirit gate.

**Footnotes:**

1) For the purpose of this fanfiction, the main character of this story is named "Monshuiye" or "Dreaming Snow" in the Old Fan. An alternate interpretation of this name could be "Dream of Blood," as the two words are homophonic in the old tongue. (I made that last part up. "Dream" and "Blood" are actually just homophonic in Mandarin Chinese.)

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11/3/05 Thanks for reading! It's my first online submission, I'm so thrilled/embarrassed to submit here, but mostly I'm just glad I wrote something. If you enjoyed it, please leave a note. It's hard to tell whether people read your work or not on this forum (no visitor counters — why no counters?) but I at least hope I've entertained a few readers as much as some of the other fanfiction writers have entertained me. Thanks for getting here! 

Oh, and because it's fashionable (and more or less polite) to point out that fanfiction writers don't own the intellectual property on the licensed characters they're taking licenses with, I don't own the intellectual property on the characters of Jade Empire that I'm taking licenses with. But I'd happily donate everything I write to Bioware and whoever cares to use it, free of charge and lawsuits. I'd give it to you in writing too, except that I don't think anyone would care. :-)


	2. Part II

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**Part II: The Vigil**

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_What does it take for a mortal to hold the affections of a god? Sky's dedication to his love never wavered, and he stood proudly by her side, enforcing her will without question. Over the years his name became more dreaded than Death's Hand, for Sky worked in the shadows, and his informants were everywhere. There were moments when Sky would lie alone in the middle of the night – for no god needs sleep – and he would question the path his life had taken. It was invariably on those nights that the Empress would find time to come to him, and the next day would always find more steel in his eyes and a dark resolve burning in his heart._

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In the distance, thunder boomed with the deep resonance of war drums. A rising tempo of hard rain cut across the rumble in the sky, blurring the world into the same gray-tinted mass. In his tent, Sky sat and watched the flicker of a candle wick gasping its last breath. The melted tallow ran in liquid red rivulets across the table. It was past their appointed hour, and though a goddess was infallible, tonight she was late.

Sky disliked these moments when he could only wait. In his hands, a whetstone traveled swiftly up and down his blade, a little canyon worn into the side where he passed it along the sharpened sword. Of course, this was not the first time she had been late. Sometimes she was absent altogether. Usually she was fine, though once or twice she had returned to him barely recognizable with injuries and caked in blood – her own as well as her enemies'. He remembered the Four Celestial Generals had given her some difficulty, Lei the Thunder God, in particular, and even in his hardened heart Sky ached with pity when he remembered how she had stumble in on her return, barely able to stand, her arms and legs a latticework of lacerations. How could he bear to lose her again? More than once he had asked her to let him fight by her side, but in a battle amongst the gods, what could a mere mortal do? He took bitter comfort in the knowledge that she had Death's Hand and Ya Zhen with her. Even still… he disliked the waiting.

The candle bled away as Sky turned his mind to happier times, his blood warming as he remembered the night she returned victorious from the defeat of the insufferably smug Forest Shadow. There were no words to express the heat of their celebration that night, nor the one after, but the sweet aphrodisiac of victory suffused every element of her being and he burned in the glory of her passions. He hungered for the taste of her flesh and sweat against his mouth; still just as madly in love with the fine eyes and glorious hair that had not aged a day since she defeated Emperor Sun Hai and took the power of the Water Dragon for her own.

Afterwards, when he was spent and she pretended to sleep softly by his side (she indulged him in such normalities), he would look fondly on her youthful face and trace the tantalizing curvature of her lips with his hands. It was the unspoken understanding between them that just as he worked without fail to tame the people of the Empire beneath their feet while she was away, so in return she rewarded him with these moments of imagined domesticity. Earlier in their reign they had even escaped on rural "getaways" and traveled through the Empire disguised as simple peasants. They visited the cities of the Prosperous East, enjoyed the night pleasures of the Phoenix Gate, and chartered their way down the Silkworm River back to the Golden Delta, but after the third assassination attempt, Monshuiye (1) herself put a stop to their trips, and in any case, the matters of the Empire and Heavens had taken precedent over their own pleasures. Larger, more pressing issues demanded both their attention, and there was no longer time to spend pursuing trivial matters. But it was on nights like these that Sky missed those moments together most.

A rustling at the tent entrance broke his reminiscences.

"Enter," he commanded and a slight man with dark-stained hands and matching armor entered.

"The prisoner is prepared, my Lord," bowed the man, his shaven head wet from the rain and reflecting red in the candlelight. Sky stopped polishing the edge of his blade and waved the man away. Never rising from his bow, the Assassin backed silently out of the tent and disappeared into the shadows. Sky stood and followed into the rain, tasting the iron in the air as he walked across his camp and feeling the thick fluid cling to his shoulder-length hair before slicking down black robes. His sentries stood diligently to attention as he passed into the prisoner's tent.

The bronzed light of a single brazier revealed a man in the tan robes of a monk, his body and hands bent and clapped by heavy metal stocks, his head shaven save for a tight bun at the top. The prisoner was suspended by chains that ran from the central pole to his mental claps and his weight was uncomfortably balanced between his bonds and his bare, blistered feet. His face was a scarred and bloodied map of pain, his lips were split, his right eye was swollen like a purple patch. The hands of the prisoner were stained just as darkly as Sky's Assassins', though this man had abandoned the Lotus ranks years ago. As Sky approached, he stirred and moaned softly with effort, slowly cracking open his one good eye.

"What do you want, Sky? I won't tell you where they are, and I am no stranger to torture. The vermin you employ will not find it easy to break me." In his younger days Sky would have retorted with a clever comeback, something that both taunted and reminded his prisoner of his bondage, but the humor of the past was past. Now, he merely stood where he was, a darker shadow in the dim light.

"I'd die rather than tell you anything. Why don't you kill me? Or does your bitch have you wound up so tight around her finger that you won't even dare touch me without her permission?"

Ignoring the taunts, Sky unwound the gray silk sash around his waist and tenderly lifted his prisoner's head. He dabbed gently around the corners where the blood was still fresh and worked his way gently across the face, taking care to clean carefully around the swollen eye. The man tried to break away, or open his jaw to spit, but Sky held him firm.

Sky smiled as if the two men shared a secret joke. "I don't want you dead, Zu. I want you to live a long, long life. Very painfully," He added as he flicked his wrist and a slender blade appeared between his fingers, "so I can enjoy every moment of it."

He scrapped the tip of the blade against Zu's cheekbones, not yet drawing blood, but allowing the weight of the metal to settle against the skin as he traced around the purple swollen eye. To his credit, Zu did not tremble as Sky toyed with him. A rising scream of first surprise, then excruciating pain was torn out of Zu's broken form however, as Sky plunged the knife with surgical precision into the bad eye, releasing blood and tears down the prisoner's face until the pain became intolerable and he fainted.

When the screaming subsided, Sky wedged his silk sash against Zu's eye and removed the blade, wrapping the long sash around the wound and Zu's head. Yellow puss dripped from the socket of the right eye, like a sallow river across the cheek. Sky had a certain interest in the study of the human anatomy, and this technique of bisecting the mind was just one of the many tricks he had picked up in his years of study. The blade inserted through the eye had the effect of dividing the mind, making it difficult for the victim to plan or organize coherent thoughts. When he awoke, Zu would break sooner than he expected. It was crude and sometimes had the unfortunate effect of rendering a mind completely useless, but with practice, and study, Sky had made it a most effective technique when a prisoner was particularly resistant.

Sky wiped his hands on the makeshift bandage, pleased with his handiwork though he was disappointed that Zu had not managed to stay conscious to scream for long. Never mind. No doubt Monshuiye would be able to sustain him when she arrived; her talent for manipulating chi energy included even the healing of others, most useful when immediacy was required to continue working with a subject. He did hope she'd enjoy his gift. It had taken some planning to feed the false information of their whereabouts to Zu's spies without alarming the rebel's forces, but the prize was worth the effort. With one swift motion he signaled to the sentries that a doctor was to be brought to tend to the prisoner more fully. Venturing through the dark rain again, Sky returned to the candlelight vigil in his tent.


	3. Part III

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**Part III: Haunted**

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The air tasted of iron and sulfur and it reminded Snow of the noxious compounds in Old Guijin's workshop. Black rain fell hard and stained the ground, hot and heavy against her skin. She looked with curiosity at the lumpy, muddy landscape around her. It reminded her of somewhere… another field she vaguely remembered leaving. For the life of her she couldn't remember where she was, or how she had got there. _A door, I think… Or was it a portal?_ In the distance of memory, something very large and important eluded her.

_Where am I? Why am I here… Last thing I remember was walking into the Dirge Temple… That's right, the Goddess wanted me to live… I stepped through the portal and…_ She furrowed her eyebrows in consternation. There was a task she was sent to do — what was it? She tried to focus on the memory she couldn't capture, but there was a clamor of inhuman voices all around her that drowned out her thoughts. She had always been sensitive to the flow of energy in all things ― it was a talent that allowed her to manipulate and understand chi so well ― but never acutely as she felt it now. The natural flow of energy in this world had been disrupted so thoroughly that it made her skin crawl, and discord that reigned in the sky. She was filled with unease. The land was permeated with the smell of churned mud, decay, and the taste of red iron. Occasionally, a bright bolt of lightning escaped the clouds and lit the area.

Her eyes wandered in the light of another lightning stroke, and she realized that the uneven mounds she saw all around her weren't little knolls but human bodies, some armored, all in varying shapes of death. Her fights tightened. Some of the figures on the ground were small, the size of children, and others wore the dress of peasants, rakes and pitchforks clasped uselessly in stiff hands. She understood now that the still air was thick with the heat of their dying breath, and the scent of iron rose like vengeful spirits because the earth was soaked in their blood. She felt the presence of the restless dead before she saw their transparent and slightly luminescent forms appear.

"Why?" she asked, "Who did this?"

One spirit, a tall man with a long beard and low-bound hair spoke for all, "_Yasu nir kawa etcu wossou suwai oukir apu moo shu ou fumisi soyeir kangti tabanichu oukusini mira wa… mi ne wuso wo kiwa ruoung pikatei nirathakur…_"

"I — what? No, I would never kill children! Not farmers and innocents! I've never even been here before, I… I think…" She held a hand to her head, there _was_ something here though, the traces of an energy that felt familiar…

"I can't quite remember — " An image of icy palisades and snow-topped statues came to mind, but she couldn't place it, "I just know I was sent here to do something." Snow frowned and looked around again. The night — if it was night, was unusually dark and the rain and clouds obscured any light from the moon or stars in the sky. The rain felt hot and oppressive. At the edge of her senses waves of broken chi coiled around the landscape. "The chi here is bent as if the world itself is warped, not just the pathways for the dead." There was something important she was supposed to remember about that, but the voices calling to her in the background were distracting, like listening to a song she could almost understand… If she could only spend some time and focus properly. But the ghost spoke again and brought her thoughts back to the fields.

"_Sooheir Ichinea khata su ni mia tamarin, tamarin! Uthu ir nisaka to liong ne ouhieer prubuthakar kjujalaya oumi ni yio osho…"_

"I don't understand why, but let me help you. I'm not here to hurt anyone. You've suffered enough. Let me pass and I promise will find out who is at the bottom of this — "

"_No!_" screamed another spirit, a woman in short robes who held the ghostly memory of a rusty sword in her hand. "_No talks! No deals! You have already deceived us! Goddess or not, I will make you pay!_" The ghost woman lunged forward, forcing Snow to fall into a defensive Heavenly Wave stance and knock the blade away. She tried to retreat, but the ghosts closed in behind her, eyes hungry with incomprehensible rage. She was surrounded. There was no choice.

Snow fought by instinct, her eyes unable to focus on anything in the pitiless darkness between lightning strikes. But with her _other_ eyes, the senses of the soul, she saw each spirit as brilliantly as if illuminated by day. There _was_ something else here in the periphery of all her senses but ― she shifted to a Legendary Strike stance and her right leg carved an arc in the air, slamming down on the spirits immediately to her left as she stepped and executed another kick with her other leg, sending the ghost woman flying into the mud ― there were more immediate problems to contend with at the moment.

Turning, Snow changed to Leaping Tiger and slashed her way through the group of restless shades, her hands and feet connecting faster than the ghosts could react, striking at the heart of their essences and dispersing one after another with an inescapable accuracy. Committed to action, she did not stop even to spare the smaller spirits that came rushing at her. _They killed even the children. _She could only pray that dispersed, the young spirits could find some measure of rest.

Half-shaped thoughts danced at the edges of her mind as she fought, waiting for her to take heed and articulate them. _The chi here ― it's not just corrupted. The taint in the land is much too strong ― _But she didn't have the luxury of time. Two more spirits rose for every spirit that she dispersed, their mere numbers forcing her to retreat across the darkness.

Snow found herself loosing footing on the slippery, uneven field. It was getting much too crowded. A clawed hand tearing through one last spirit's ghostly heart and she shot forward with the momentum of her attack, leaping over the crowd to land in a crouch on the other side, her feet up to her ankles in mud.

Pulling each foot laboriously through the slime, Snow turned and ran through the black rain. A legion of ghosts followed grimly behind her.

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"The Heavens themselves are crying for the injustice of this world."

"You know, I don't really care if who's crying or not so as long as I can get a good fight. And wine! Now there's an injustice — the swill you keep feeding me. What good are you as a Celestial merchant if you don't carry any damn decent wine?"

"Wh-what? This is no time to worry about wine! You just don't get it, do you? The world is going to end! Don't you care that you're going to die?"

"We're all going to die, bean-counter, it's just a matter of when and by whose hand. And if I don't get me some wine, I think I'm going to die from your annoying chatter first."

"Not me! I'm a god! I don't want to die!" Zin Bu the Magic Abacus whined, throwing his hands up in frustration. His partner, the Celestial Demon Hunter Black Whirlwind, took no notice.

"I'm only eight hundred years old! That's much too young to die! And if it wasn't for you and your ah… well… let's not speak her name… but I wouldn't be here if it weren't for all of you mortals. Erh, former mortals." Zin Bu sighed. Against his protests he had been commissioned to travel with the brute until they fulfilled their assignment to kill the demon lord Ya Zhen, Merciless Fang of the Eternal Empress.

The two moved side by side in the black, rain-drenched landscape. "Ya Zhen," Zin Bu sighed again, this time longer and more piteously. "What makes the Celestial Bureaucracy think you can kill a demon the Nine Mystic Eagle Lords themselves couldn't?"

"Killing things is easy," Black Whirlwind shrugged, "You don't even need to think about it. It's a lot like drinking that way, but with more blood. They work well when you combine them, too. I'm always more dangerous when I'm drunk. Hey, when are you going to get those wine barrels we've been talking about? I wouldn't want to be sober when we run into him."

"I already told you, I don't have any alcohol!"

"No wine, no enemies, and no women. What is this Empire good for? I should have stayed in the north — at least there were lots of those tin-capped dough-men to fight!"

Under the hooded cowl of his huge cloak Black Whirlwind cursed and grumbled. He kicked a head-sized stone on the ground and then crushed it beneath his iron-booted feet. His axe hands twitched and he began fingering the handles of his blades, scrapping the weapons insistently against their sheaths as they walked. The sound of axes grinding against each metal hissed out of his cloak with an insistent_kkkshink! Kshink, kshink!_ Unconsciously, Black Whirlwind began twirling the blades in his hands, spinning them perilously close to Zin Bu's robes until one landed with a harsh _krthunk!_ in the trunk of a tree before the lesser god, nearly splitting him in two.

"Alright, alright!" Zin Bu screeched, cringing physically, his nerves on high alert. As a god he probably wouldn't die of any injuries inflected by Black Whirlwind, but that also meant he could live for a very, very long time without medical attention, "I'll find you some wine! Anything to get away from you! It's going to take awhile. Traveling even for gods in this forsaken empire is a lot harder than it used to be. Security checkpoints, weapons detectors – most anyone deity with any sense has already emigrated elsewhere. Did I tell you about the piece of heaven Hsian of the Yellow Mountain found off the southern coast of the Glass Ocean?"

Black Whirlwind looked at him through a haze of black eyebrows and pulled the embedded axe from the offending trunk, shattering the tree in the process. Black Whirlwind continued spinning his blades as if nothing had happened, the sharp metal humming sharply as it danced through the air.

"Er, right, right, I'll just be back in a while, yes? Although getting a decent anything these days is becoming…" The Magic Abacus's complaints trailed off as he faded from view in a puff of sickly smoke.

Black Whirlwind trudged on. Absent-mindedly, he tossed his axes as few times and cleaved the limbs off nearby trees. After awhile, he grew bored and returned them to their sheaths behind his back and unloaded a small cask of wine from the inside of his cape. He took a practiced swig as he walked, feeling a little better, though still bored and stifled by the sameness of the landscape.

The rain continued its hot descent.


	4. Part IV

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**Part IV: A Taste of Blood**

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_How could mere mortals compete against a god when even gods had failed? — Sun Li asked the impossible but his daughter's faith was unshakable — a pitiful army against a Goddess's might — What hope did they have? — It was over in a matter of minutes —they didn't have a chance — His troops fell again and again in his dreams — his eyes burned and his hands clapped in metal stocks — he couldn't move or see — I won't tell you Sky — you'll have to kill me — Sky watching — Sky's blade in his eye — too late he realized it was a trap — failed his duty — failed Dawn Star — failed the men and women, and even children who stood with him in one their last desperate attempt — The throbbing in his brain grew harder — swearing to Dawn Star that he would follow her to the very depths of Hell — the ache of his soul was fire burning in Sky's eyes — Dawn Star — the Goddess — Blood — he had to stop the ascension! — Monshuiye's blood on his hand — Blood everywhere now… Dark memories of the fortress in Necropolis — holding the infant Dawn Star's body strapped to him while his spear rained death on their enemies — days and nights and years spent hiding in the bug-infested thick of marshes just to catch a glimpse of her — that night leaving Dawn Star in Hui's care in Tien's Landing — the day he left Mongshuiye and Dawn Star to the folly of Silk Fox's plan — the day he failed them all…_

The prisoner's tattered thoughts rose and collided and cut each other off in the delirium of his dreams. Occasionally, an anguished moan escaped cracked lips, releasing a raspy, dry voice. The young Assassin who monitored him stared intently into the tent's tiny brazier, wishing he had a more significant task. Outside, the black rain continued its smoldering storm.

* * *

The army of the dead did not tire and did not slow; their hatred was a hard and pure blade that drove Snow from behind. She was breathing rapidly, her feet caught up in unexpected foxholes, tripped by unseen bodies and sharp stones more often than she liked. She stopped long enough to unleash a quickfire succession of Thousand Cuts on the spirits closest before continuing her flight. Even on a clear day at full health she would have had trouble dispersing an entire army of ghosts rising at this rate, but in the slippery darkness of the mud fields there was no place for her to make a strategic stand. She was using hit and run tactics to slow them, but she wouldn't be able to keep this up indefinitely. The rain blurred her vision of the world into hot, dark streaks.

Before her was growing a glimmer of red light which she ran toward, a beacon of hope high on the landscape, indicating a tower or a fortress of some sort where she might find help and perhaps answers. It was equally likely she was running straight into the people responsible for this massacre. After all, who else would camp so close to such death?

She crossed a line of trees onto less soggy ground, her thin-soled feet bending twigs and leaves underneath her passing. The air here was less humid but still rank, and Snow could sense the imbalance of chi affecting the trees as well. Dark energy crawled along the branches and roots, an iridescent black like thick oil. The low, weeping rustle of the trees joined the clamor of the ghosts from the field.

Preoccupied by the cries of spirits, Snow didn't notice the dark figures detach themselves from the trees and intercept until they practically stood before her, their auras were filled with the intent to kill. Seven shadows moved in the darkness, barely distinguishable from the night by green glowing hands that signaled poison in their weapons. The seven fanned out into a semi-circle facing her, as more arrived from the darkness, raising their hands to take up fighting stances against the ghosts behind her.

Snow slid to a halt, arms and legs outstretched and ready with a Paralyzing Palm attack. The new figures were clearly human, but since their intentions had not yet been declared, she was loathe to kill without reason. The ghosts behind, however, had no such compunctions. As one they opened their mouths and Snow could feel the piercing cold of their cry send goosebumps down her back, chilling even in the heat of the unnatural rain. As one they raised their arms and charged.

Combat was a confused blur, but the chaos worked to Snow's advantage. She didn't have to pick and choose between her allies and enemies ― her only concern was defending herself, indiscriminately neutralizing all attackers and using the cover of the battle to move forward, guided by faint glimpses of the distant beacon between the latticework of bare branches. The fighters thinned as she moved away from the mud field and Snow kept close to the trees, picking her way over desiccated leaves and avoiding ghosts and humans alike by the visible aura of their glowing chi.

More lights appeared in the foreground as a group of armed soldiers marched in the direction of the battle, carrying strange glowing globes on poles that lit their path without appearing to consume any fuel. Half-climbing and half-leaping, she took shelter in the arms of a large pine, avoiding their notice and noting the Imperial uniforms of the soldiers and the dark leather armor of the leaders. By the light, she could see bald heads inscribed with black, tattooed characters, the unmistakable marks of a Lotus Assassin

_If the Lotus Assassins are here_… it was very likely that they had something to do with the massacre. Snow smiled a little at the thought that she had just inadvertently brought the entire army to spirits to meet them.

From her vantage Snow saw more lights behind the moving soldiers, and tents that made up a large military camp. The high beacon she had seen was a wooden tower perched on metal wheels the size of a cottage, and to the left there were the winged shapes of large transportation flyers. Still figures twice the height of a normal man enclosed the entire camp ground – stone golem sentries. She scanned the camp again for signs of the even larger siege golems and was relieved to find none, though she did note a tree of interest to the right whose branches hung over the heads of the normal golems, and she thought she could vault over their heads and enter there. Golems tended to obey orders to the letter, and if it appeared that she had come up from behind them, there was the chance that they wouldn't attack and she could slip in unmolested – perhaps find some answers about where she was and some clue as to what she was supposed to do.

As she waited for the fighters to pass, she could feel the twisted spirit of the tree writhing under her touch – not exactly a physical sensation but something twisting and clammy, like an eel under the skin. Beneath the withered whisperings of the forest another voice rose, harsh yet melodic, faint but insistent. It beckoned with darkness and destruction to all she saw, promised a power that could bend the world itself, pleaded to be unleashed to devour everything, _everything, everything_ and rain devastation on this tattered land.

_No_, Snow thought, suppressing the desires that surged through her heart, which felt like hers yet not hers. _No. Who are you? How are you in my mind?_

_I am you, _It said, _We are the same._

The trees and the world spun. Snow felt a crushing weight on her soul, an almost overwhelming emotion of anger and bloodlust that she could barely contain. Hatred swept her, but she fought the impulse. She was surprised by the violence of its resistance, nearly losing her perch when her body jerked involuntarily and she almost lost control. Her hand clenched on the branch tightened and splintered it, embedding wood shards into her skin. She focused on the pain. After awhile, she felt her breathing return to normal and the rain-drenched world faded back into view, blinking as if she had just awoken from a dream. The reality of the splinters in her hand were the only reminders of her strange possession. Hissing softly, she picked out the largest pieces and cradled the hand close, blocking the telltale glow of chi energy with her body as she healed it. That other voice ― it had had the same energy as the presence in the field ― strangely familiar yet alien to her. It had been suppressed for now, but Snow could feel the beating of the spirit voices all around her and knew that it would wait to for her resolve to wear down before attacking again. Though next time, she hoped, she would at least have the advantage of knowing how her enemy fought._ Temple and stone_, she thought, _What am I fighting?_

Snow worked her way across the remaining tree before the camp by leaping from branch to branch, the need for answers more urgent than ever. Reaching the perimeter of the Lotus Assassin camp, she paused to scan the shadows and tents for evidence of more Assassins before venturing forth, carefully balancing both feet as far out on the last tree as she could, then bouncing her weight up and down the branch to give her extra momentum. On her third upswing she pushed off, vaulting high over the heads of the clay sentinels and landing with a muddy squish in the shadow of the closest tent. She crouched, breath and heart still, and waited signs of alarm, movement from the stone sentinels. When she was certain none had seen or heard her, she gently lifted the edge of the tent and peered inside.


	5. Part V

* * *

**Part V: ****Ghost of the Past  
**

* * *

The young woman collapsed the periscope neatly into itself and dropped the device into a small red pouch that hung at her hips. She rose from the cliffside and wound her way up sharp rocks and slippery slopes to one of the many caves dotting the mountain. Halfway up, a wider path split from the side of the mountain and led down into a flat plain where Nature tried to bury the unconsecrated bodies of her children in a tomb of mud.

Entering the cave, the woman lifted the burgundy hood from her head and shook the rain from her cloak. She surveyed a group of similarly dressed warriors who held swords tight in their hands or strapped to their backs. In the air was the heat of anticipation. She found the man she was looking for and moved towards him, a lone figure seated on a medium boulder, a little shorter than the rest and with a head full of paper-white hair upswept into a bun. He stood from his rock to greet her and pulled her aside.

"Dawn Star," he said, "What news, my child?"

"It's as I saw in my vision, father. Someone has summoned all of the spirits of Zu's fallen and led them against the Empress' army."

"You do not know who?"

She shook her head. "It's impossible to sort out what they spirits are saying. This place – it's twisted, as if the world itself were buckling and the voices of the spirits are… are very nearly overwhelming."

He nodded. "I do not envy your vision, child." He gestured to one of the other warriors, a woman with knotted hair like little knobs all over her head. "Kia Min, alert the officers. We will ride on the heels of this advantage. We won't have another opening." Min raised her hands before her, palm to fist, and bowed her acknowledgement before leaving to carry out her instructions.

Dawn Star sighed. "I know we have no choice, but it still seems so heartless to make use of the dead in such a way."

The old man laid a calloused hand gently on Dawn Star's arm, though his voice was deep and troubled, "We do what we must. If we succeed, we avenge every one of their deaths. If we do not, then pity our own fates when we join them in their torment." He gazed intently at the girl, his voice softening. "Our fallen friends will understand, Dawn Star," he said, and reading the resistance in her shoulders, he added, "as will Zu." Her young body seemed to sag, and her head sunk lower. He squeezed her arm sympathetically and continued, "Zu more than any of us, Dawn Star, understands the importance of duty. Though we were too late to save him, the opportunity he has afforded us will be our best chance at righting the wrongs committed so long ago."

Dawn Star clasped her hand over her father's and nodded. "I know we have to do what we must to restore the balance. It's just that when Zu was here, he helped me to overcome my doubts. His strength was a pillar of hope that I took comfort in. I… I never told him that… And now that he is gone, I am filled once again with uncertainties. I know all of this will not matter if we don't succeed, but how can we? We fight a goddess, father! And I am not the warrior that Monshuiye was…"

The old man's eyes grew dim with sorrow at the mention of his former pupil's name, but he pulled Dawn Star's hands towards him and held her tight. "You have been everything that a father could wish for, Dawn Star, _everything_. Had I not been so blinded by my vengeance and ambition, I would have seen that sooner. I know would not have made the same choices if I had known then what I know now — if only to spare you this pain…" He brushed the soft hair that fell from her head and brushed away the quiet tears on her cheek. Lifting her chin, he looked deep into his daughter's eyes, her face wearing more pain and sorrow than any young woman of twenty and five should. "I regret to have put such a heavy burden upon your shoulders. If I do not survive the coming battle, know that above all else, I am proud to be your father."

"Don't say that," Dawn Star said, clasping his hands in return. Her bright eyes met his worn, clear gaze and between them passed a look that said everything, that communicated in a frozen instant all that they had gained and lost: the anguish and regret, the friends and family. Their emotions were polished to a fine blade by the threat of no tomorrow. Finally, Dawn Star pulled her hands reluctantly away.

"I will help Kia Min ready the fighters," she said, and left.

Sun Li watched his only child leave to lead her army with the graceful determination and dignity that still painfully reminded him of her mother. It had been over two decades since he abandoned his family for his ambition, and it had taken that many years and the upheaval of the Celestial Balance itself for him to finally understand the cost of his machinations.

The product of his ambitions had only conceived of more pain and destruction: she had become an ever-devouring tempest that had to be stopped. Beneath his robes he carried the Dragon Amulet of the last Spirit Monk, recovered at great cost from the ruins of Necropolis where she fell. In the center of the Amulet was placed a luminescent bloodstone, a dying-gift from the heart of the earth-god Tudityan, an essence gem that would draw out the powers that Monshuiye, self-proclaimed Empress of Blood and the Eight Doomed Heavens, had drained from the Water Dragon and stolen from the gods she defeated. But there was a limit to how long even the Amulet could contain Blood's power. It was their final hope for defeating her before she destroyed the Celestial Balance itself. Sun Li prayed to whatever gods remained in this forsaken land that it would be enough.

* * *

Snow crawled into the tent, body flat to the ground, and tried not to rustle the canvas. 

A single brazier colored the interior in colors of buttered yellow and brown shadow and light from the flames playfully licked the sides like a fond dog lapping at its master's heels. In the center stood a foot-round post that held up the tent. From it ran a length of chain connected to the figure of a bent man who was clasped limply in the grasp of heavy metal stocks, facing the opening of the tent away from Snow. His clothes were stained with blood and hard clumps of earth, and he wore no identifying marks to designate him as an officer or soldier of interest. Yet he alone of the ragtag army had been taken as prisoner when not even children were spared. Did the Assassins want him for questioning, or was there a worse fate than death planned for this man? Snow wanted to see what kind of man the Assassins would want to keep in this condition, but from where she knelt his face was obscured by the stocks.

The rest of the tent was bare save for a single sentry who stood by the brazier, his back to Snow. He wore the dark robes and armor of a Lotus Executioner and his clean-shaven head was untattooed, indicating novice status. His attention appeared to be riveted by the fire in the brazier, and he did not hear the quiet shuffling noises of her entrance. Tiptoeing, she moved in a half-crouch around the tent shadows until she had the Executioner's back directly before her. Lifting her hands, she focused her body in the stance that summoned the chi energy of a Spirit Thief attack and pointed her fingers at the Assassin. A beam of purple light shot from her hands and lifted him into the air, immobile. She stepped forward, into the brazier's light.

"Monshuiye!" growled the prisoner, so vehemently that her head snapped to look at him in surprise.

"Zu!" she gasped, "But you're supposed to be dead!"

"Let's finish this… I won't tell you where they are, you'll have to kill me, why don't you kill me? Sky…" Snow realized Zu wasn't talking to her. Though he gave the direction she stood in a mirthless grin and opened his mouth as if to spit ― choking on himself before falling under a fit of wet-sounding coughs ― his right eye was covered with a bloody gray clothe, and his left eye roamed freely in his head, clearly feverish.

_Five, six, seven, eight…_ Snow's leg swung up and snaked around the neck of Lotus Assassin behind her as her Spirit Thief spell wore off, catching the man as he fell. _Kill him_, the sibilant voice from the woods suddenly said. _Add his lifeforce to our own_.

_No_, Snow answered. But the thought had crossed her mind and she found it eerie how the other voice echoed her thoughts. _He already chose his path before we ever met. I can't afford raising an alarm and fighting an entire Lotus Assassin army right now_.

_Justify it however you like._

Her leg tightened around his neck and twisted, snapping his spinal cord with one deft twist. Reaching out, she eased the body to the floor and was dismayed to see how young the face was ― no more than a few summers less than her.

_Such a waste of life_.

She said a quiet prayer for the spirit of the fallen boy before turning her attention back to Zu.

"Dawn Star… No… I am so sorry; it should not be my reluctance that has damned you… the marshes… waited so long just to see you… no, don't run so fast… Father, hurry father, Won Xiang's hurt… do you remember the songs we sang? Dawn Star, I won't let anyone hurt you…"

The aura around Zu's body was a disjointed, writhing mass of broken colors and twisted connections. Snow had read in Master Li's medical books about head wounds which opened a man's body and allowed parts of the spirit to escape through the opening, rendering a man feebleminded and feverish and open to demonic possessions. Two Rivers was a small village without nearby doctors, and Master Li had also taken it upon himself to perform the duties of a medical practitioner in addition to the training of the young warriors at the school. (Short of midwifery, which was the domain of the town witch, Master Li had instructed her in what he knew of medicine as well. When she was a child she had wondered why such a man with such a comprehensive education would be content to live in as a slight and minor town as Two Rivers. In retrospect, the answer was sadly not what she had hoped for.) From what she had learned from reading and practicing with Master Li, there wasn't any cure for living men with damaged souls, short of a miracle. She could treat wounds and fevers and infections with the right herbs around, but a damaged spirit was something beyond her abilities. Though the symptoms looked dire, she couldn't be sure yet until she'd had a good look at him without the chains, but she'd have to get him out of those stocks, first.

Snow looked for a keyhole on the stocks and then checked the dead Lotus Assassin for a key. No such luck. The keyhole didn't look like anything she'd be able to pick, and at that moment she sorely missed Sky's many "talents," which brought to mind a fond memory of his mischievous smile whenever they were about to do something unlawful ― like the time they snuck the hapless Creative Yukong out the Imperial City right underneath the eyes of the Captain of the Guard. She replayed their last conversation together in the Imperial Palace as she checked the dead Assassin's body again; and she couldn't help making a making a mental checklist of everything she had done _wrong_ in that talk. She had left too many things unsaid, and now there was no time. She was unsure if she would ever see him again, and the regret weighed like and anvil over her heart.

It was dawning on Snow that the world she moved through wasn't entirely her own. Yes, there were many similar elements and even familiar people here, but under the surface there was an even stronger sense of something completely awry with the fundamental balance of the universe. Zu should have been dead. No one could have survived the blade he took from Death's Hand — a piercing blow that cut straight through his midsection — and the collapsing Necropolis would definitely have killed him if nothing else. Neither had the world Snow left been anywhere nowhere near this level of discord. The Water Dragon had promised to return her to life ― but _what_ life had she been returned to?

Snow rubbed her temples, a headache forming in the maelstrom of blurred thoughts and slippery memories at the back of her head. What had happened after she stepped through the Water Dragon's portal? What was causing the imbalance in this world? It had something to do with the dead who rose in her presence, and the voices of spirits she had been hearing everywhere. She had always been sensitive to chi and energy, but this level of awareness was Dawn Star's prerogative, not hers. When had her abilities grown? Why couldn't she remember?

She let the thoughts tumble in her mind as she examined at the metal stocks around Zu's neck and arms and the pole to which he was bound. She risked injuring him if she broke either. She considered snapping the chains, but decided that would be too loud. She could also scour the camp for a key, but she wouldn't know where to start, and would probably just get caught anyway. As she was running out of ideas, her hand reached forward on its own and gripped the chain. She felt herself drawing on an inner reservoir of power she had never had, and her hands began glowing red, then blue, then white, and the metal around her fist glowed red and melted into little droplets that fell like water onto the tent floor. Dust settled onto the cooling liquid metal.

Snow stared.

Zu's body fell onto hers, and just in time, she braced herself against him to prevent them from crashing to the ground. She gripped the metal around his shoulders and worked his body to the floor, fearful of what might happen if her hand came into contact with human flesh. When he was more or less settled, Snow went back to check on the chain that had bound Zu and saw that it was neatly divided into two, the ends melted smoothly into rounded knobs with gentle grooves in the shape of her fingers. She looked at her hand, which had returned to its normal tan color, and looked back at the chains. She looked down at Zu's body slumped on the ground and wondered what else she never knew she could do.


	6. Part VI

* * *

**Part VI: My Name is Snow**

* * *

Another annoyance, another thorn that demanded his attention. It kept him busy, he supposed, and filled his long hours with the challenge of minor obstacles. The Lotus Assassin bobbed obsequiously as he spoke, each report compounded by a raising of his hands and a lowering of his head. The man was saying something about the ghosts of Zu's army rising up again and coming through the woods. Scouts had also reported Li's ragtag forces moving from the mountains to the southwest. But it was all of little consequence. 

"I trust you've already ordered the necessary forces to take care of the issue," Sky said.

"Yes, most honored Lord of the Fading Sun," the bald head bobbed.

"Then why are you still here?"

"It's not just the ghosts and the rebels, sire. Something big is coming out from the east. It's large enough to take down trees which we've seen felled from a distance. None of the Inquisitors we sent have reported back yet."

"How many?"

"Three thus far, sire." The second and third would both have gone with a squad of Imperial soldiers for backup.

Sky toyed with the empty wine container on his table, twirling the porcelain vase on its edge carelessly until the light flashed off its white surface like the sheen of a pearl. "Take ten of the stone golems," he said, thinking that this had better not be one of Ya Zhen's bloodthirsty flights of fancy, "and Tao's team of Assassins. You'll personally lead them to intercept it."

"M-my Lord?" The bald man's eyes fluttered and his head froze in shock. Inwardly, Sky rolled his eyes, but he kept his face cold and impassive. The Assassins they recruited now just weren't what they used to be. "You have your orders. Get out of my sight," he told the man.

"Y-yes, Lord. May my Lord the Honored Consort of her Heavenly Highness – "

"Enough." Sky waved him away. The Assassin's head bobbed three more time as he bowed his way out. Sky stopped twirling with the container and looked down into his cup, which still held the dark traces of the plum wine he had been drinking. The aromatic and heady scent of the fermented fruit reminded him of _her_, so dark and intense yet effervescent, and he felt again a pang for her absence. It was becoming an evening of many nuisances.

Li and his crop of misfit peasantry had been nipping at the Empire's heels for years, and Sky had offered many a suggestion to his love for how to swiftly dispose of them. But whether out of some trace sentimentality (if that could be believed), or her ironic sense of humor, she had allowed Li and his pitiful rebels to narrowly escape time and again, laughing and recounting later how she had shifted some mountain top to collapse over her own Imperial soldiers before her troops could catch up and slaughter the rebel forces.

Perhaps Li remained one of the few distractions she still found worth pursuing. She knew all his tricks and moves like the back of her hand from a mortal lifetime under his tutelage, but godhood offered her the power to shape the world to her will, and she reveled in besting the former Glorious Strategist on his own grounds without his ever knowing. Still, she appeared to enjoy watching him use his meager resources to creative advantages.

Sky remembered how her face had broken into a smile of disarming candor as she had told him the story, a smile that he hadn't seen on her face since the day she fell against Death's Hand in the Lotus Assassin fortress. He himself had barely escaped that place with his life. Of course, it was a miracle that she returned. When Dawn Star began having visions, he knew it had to be her battling her way back to him. But the woman who returned was not the same Monshuiye who had left. Laughter no longer shone in her eyes like the rainbow sparkle of sunlight on a spring lake. Her memory of a place beyond death haunted her, paining him, and in remembrance of her fate, she took on the darker translation of her name in the Old Fan, _Blood_. The most vocal amongst their companions had objected for fear of the burning vengeance in her eyes. The traitorous Princess and the cowardly Hou were both dealt with, but Dawn Star remained as an amusing afterthought.

Such details were soon set aside when Blood's subsequent defeat of Emperor Sun Hai and taking of the Water Dragon's power restored the vitality to her spirit, if not her heart. Sky never pressed her for what had happened between her fall and her resurrection. In time, like himself, her grief grew tempered into a determination and steel that enabled them to rule an Empire. Through it all, Sky had stood loyally by her side. He loved her, and that was never going to change.

* * *

_This can't be Zu_, she thought, and yet it was. She had treated him on the field many times after battle, and there was no mistaking the telltale scars even underneath all the blood and new wounds and scars he had acquired she knew not where. This was Zu, there was no doubt about it. 

Snow pushed aside the remnants of the metal stocks and leaned in, holding the back of her left hand to his forehead while pressing her right middle and index finger against the pulse in his wrist, tapping into the flow of energy in his body, reading where the broken chi bled and seeped like poison through his system. Snow had seen some dire wounds in her lifetime, and on more than one occasion had been the cause of them, but the thoroughness and cruelty of the injuries Zu had sustained could only have been accomplished through torture. Every bone in his hand was crushed, the fingers swollen black and blue, and his arms and chest bore the marks of brands and whiplashes. Internally, the chi was clotted and discolored, suggesting hemorrhaging in the brain and vital organs. The crude bandage over his eye covered a mangled socket that still bled thick and gently oozing fluid.

Not even a moan escaped his lips as she wrestled his broken body upright and propped him against the post. His breathing was distressingly shallow and he no longer muttered or fluttered his working eye. Snow pushed up Zu's legs into a cross-legged position and laid his hands at rest against his knees. She took up a meditative stance facing him, open palms extended against his chest and legs crossed so that the soles of her feet pointed up in the Lotus position.

She closed her eyes. Energy flowed out from her and she shaped it, teasing and weaving the chi by instinct. When they were children, she and Dawn Star used to plays games to see who could control more chi. One they played was a contest to see who could keep a leaf airborne for as long as possible, using bursts of chi like breaths of wind to balance it. During free hours they would run up the hill to the grove of plum flowers behind the school in Two Rivers to play until it was time to do return to their chores or Master Li called them to their training. The key was to use your chi only when it was necessary and keep your leaf in sight while adapting to the world around you. It was just as easy to accidentally destroy your leaf by hitting it with too much chi as it was to lose it to a sudden gust of wind that pulled it too far out of reach. Dawn Star, ever patient, coaxed and guided her leaf while stepping lightly in the grass to follow where it would lead. Snow, the more proactive, learned to shape chi patterns in the air that caught and held the leaf buoyant, though just as often as not she lost because she couldn't consistently maintain the chi energy she needed. As they got older, the game became more complicated. More leaves were added and they challenged each other to perform intricate martial arts moves between bursts. Other times, they sent clouds of flying foliage in the other's direction to distract her focus. It offered excellent training for channeling and focusing of their chi and Master Li did nothing to discourage it.

The memory came to mind as Snow struggled to isolate the single flickering strand that was Zu, his frail chi buffeted about like a leaf in the storm. Drawing upon her power, she shaped a bright blue globe around Zu that swirled against the darkness, keeping it out. Beyond, she could sense the tortured flow of chi in the land, bent and corrupted. With her augmented powers she could reach out and soothe all of those twisted lines back onto the paths where they belonged, like rivers of forced down the wrong channels that now longed to return to their natural beds. That, however, could take weeks, perhaps months. It was a beautiful sentiment, though right now she focused on saving Zu.

Chi rolled in azure waves from her being into her hands and into his body, and a part of her mind poured into him, forcing out the corruption that had seeped into his being, all the poisons and infection and contaminations, pulling the body's chi back into harmonious alignment. Connected thus, his body began mending itself, knitting bones and flesh together in minutes what would have taken months to heal. Days ago transferring this amount of energy into another person would have completely drained her. Now, it was like taking buckets out of the ocean.

But even as her chi flowed out to him, she found to her surprise that his memories were flowing into her. Through the melding of their energy she caught glimpses into the essence of Zu's being, his fears, his failures, his hate, and the demons that still haunted him as well as that which he loved and sustained him. She saw a vision of Dawn Star in his mind, laughing warmly though her eyes were tired and she slumped against a tree. She saw a hint of the past that had driven him here and amorphous visions of events that had never happened in her memory, but stood out vividly, like red coals in the pit of his mind.

Snow wanted to delved further, to explore the reaches of Zu's soul that may have held the answers she had been seeking since waking in this forsaken land. But mind and body healed, Zu resisted. His body jerked and pushed her away. He began coughing violently, his mouth spilling dark ichor onto the floor.

"_Zu," she whispered, "Zu!" _

_Zu opened his eyes to little Dawn Star's wide stare. Her face was round and pale like moonlight, the plump cheeks marred by small smudges of dirt where her hands had rubbed her eyes. _

"_Zu," she said more urgently, "Zu." Pointing to herself, she said, "scaaaared."_

_Zu drew her closer under the cover of his straw cloak. The dampness of the woods crept around them, infiltrating the thick straw while the last, lonely hoot of an owl interrupted the growling rustles of the forest reluctantly waking. The sky was a gray and milky blue like the irises of a blind man's eye and the trees were black and brown and flat against the sky, resembling the menacing figures of men ready to pounce with the sharp claws of animals. Dawn Star buried her small head against his chest, her tiny hands clinging tightly to his tunic. He patted her matted hair and tried to brush away the tears and smudges on her cheeks. The world outside the roots of the great tree they sheltered in was still cold and half-asleep, but in its pine-scented protection he felt a rare moment of peace and happiness, securely hidden for the moment from the hounds of their enemies that had dodged their every step since leaving the Imperial Palace. Dawn Star sighed heavily into his chest, asleep again, and his arms were wrapped tightly around her, holding on with all his power to all the light and warmth in the world._

"Zu," a voice called, then more urgently, "Zu! Can you hear me?"

Zu came back to consciousness with the sluggish desperation of a man swimming to the reaches of a far shore. More than once he felt as if he would fall beneath the black waves, but a warm and steady presence guided him throughout, pulling him along until the light broke into patterns of blue and yellow across his vision.

He opened his eyes. A goddess of azure light appeared before him, nearly unbearable to look, blue flames echoing her every movement. He fell into a fit of coughing and his body doubled over as he opened his mouth and expelled a stream of dark fluid that left him feeling empty but cleansed, the poisons and contaminants forced from his body. When he looked up, his vision had vanished. Instead, he found himself facing his greatest enemy – and the victim of his greatest shame.

"_Blood_," he growled and his hand snapped to his back, seeking his spear. It wasn't there. He leapt to his feet and raised his hands to attack. Blood remained crouched where she was, lank-haired and wild-eyed and covered in red mud. Blue energy glowed around her wrists.

"You really don't want to do that," she told him.

"I've never regretted killing someone who's tried to kill me," he said, and struck.

Blood deflected his blow with the blades of her hand, catching his arm on both sides and shifting her stance so that his momentum propelled him forward and down. He brought his knee forward to catch her exposed torso as he fell, but to his surprised, her grip on his arm changed and she vaulted over his head, twisting his right arm painfully behind him while forcing him to his knees. Another hand clamped around his mouth, and a voice in his ear harshly whispered, "Keep it down, Zu, or the two guards outside will hear us."

He nodded slightly, the pain in his shoulder making even that movement difficult. For the first time he noticed the still body of his guard on the floor, neck bent at an impossible angle. He didn't know what game she was playing, but perhaps she was toying with his sense of hope. Her hand lifted from his mouth and moved into a cautious grip around his throat.

"What does it matter?" he hissed, "Go ahead and kill me. I will fight you even then."

"Like the spirits of the farmers outside?"

"You should know, you slaughtered them."

"That's what the ghost said too. Why? Why were you leading them, Zu?"

"Don't play your games with me!" he barked in a low voice, "You know why and what you've done. I'm sure you would do it all again too, just for the sheer joy of it."

"I'm not playing any games," she said, and as if to prove her sincerity, she slowly released her grip on him. He quickly turned to face her, rubbing his right shoulder as he eyed her warily.

"Look, I'm not going to kill you. If I had wanted to, I wouldn't have brought you back from near death. Or perhaps you haven't noticed your sudden burst of health and the use of both your eyes, or the full suppleness of having all your fingers?" He flexed his fingers experimentally, but never lessened his gaze.

"Don't press your luck," she said, glancing at his hands, "You can't possibly beat me on your own. I just want a few questions answered."

He kept his expression stony, but reluctantly agreed. "Ask."

"Where are we?"

"We're very obviously in a Lotus Assassin camp, but as I am sure you already know that, I will assume that you are asking where we are geographically. We're on the plains at the foot of the Land of Howling Spirits."

"We're near Dirge?"

"We're at the entrance to the pass."

"Why are the Lotus Assassins here?"

"I'm assuming because you commanded them." She looked at him quizzically. "You set them here as guards," he elaborated. She shook her head. "You're performing a ritual of ascension. You're trying to assume the Mantle of Heaven."

"What?"

Zu glared. Her confusion seemed genuine, and it was beginning to rub off on him. "It's what you've spent the last five years doing," he said. "Ever since you killed Sun Hai and his daughter."

"Sun Hai and… Lian? I killed Lian? That's impossible, you're lying. In fact, how are _you_ alive, Zu? I distinctly remember you falling to Death's Hand in Necropolis. Who are you, _really_? Is this some kind of Lotus Assassin trick?" The energy around her hands intensified, casting an eerie blue light into the shadows of her face.

He looked at her hard. The anger in her eyes was real, but her words made no sense. "I never returned to the Lotus Assassin fortress," he growled, his voice fraught, "you of all people know this better than any other."

"You never…" The anger ebbed. A distant and calculating look replaced the look of fire.

After a few silent moments, she said, "You called me something earlier, what was it?"

"You ask as if you didn't know."

"I don't."

"Blood," he spat, "the Usurper Queen, The Empress Blood. An apt name for all that you've shed. It stains your hands even as you deny it under your pretense of justice."

"Zu," she said, looking at him with solemn eyes, "I think you've got it all wrong. My name is Snow. It always has been."


	7. Part VII

* * *

**Part VII: Blood Revealed**

* * *

"Do you expect me to be impressed?" Zu shrugged. "I'm sorry, but what you call yourself now changes nothing. I don't know what you're trying to do and I'm not really looking forward to finding out, but it seems that I have little choice. What_ do_ you intend to do now, Blood?" he asked, enunciating each word archly, "Torture and heal me again until I break?" 

Despite his bold words, Snow could sense the fear and tension beyond the bravado. Her mind's eye distinctly visualized the changes in his aura - a shifting cloud that hovered about him - and she saw that his usual, thoughtful oranges had deepened to dark blues and grays, the colors of uncertainty and fear. _After all that, he still has the gall to deliberately goad me?_ She couldn't decide whether to be impressed or angry, but a note of annoyance crept into her voice at his ingratitude, "I don't recall you having a death wish, Zu."

His face hardened, not liking what he heard in her tone. _Damn you! You set me up for that._

"Your threats mean nothing. Even if I die, there will be others to continue the cause. We won't be stopped. The time is coming when even your reign will end. Live or die, the will of the Heavens be done."

She blinked at the familiar words, remembering a time when Inquisitor Jia had said almost the exact same thing before Zu had… died. The sudden recall of unpleasant memories only served to emphasize the strangeness of her current situation, and it unnerved her more than she liked.

"That's just the thing!" she retorted in a heated whisper, trying to shake the improbability of talking to a man who should be very, very dead, "I don't know what you're talking about! What 'reign'? What 'Empress'! You say the Assassin army outside is mine? I only just got here! I do _not_ remember aligning myself with the Lotus Assassins and I mostly certainly_ did not _kill Princess Lian! Whoever you think I am Zu, _it's not me_."

The two glowered at each other as if to prove their point by the sheer force of their staring. Snow gritted her teeth, trying not to lose any more of her temper. The rain pattered over the canvas rooftop for quiet moments until the sudden and loud interruption of a war trumpet broke the tension. It was followed by the squelching sound of booted feet running over mud. She could feel the chi energy of the spirits drawing closer and finally relented:

"Look, we don't actually have time for this, so argue with me _later_. Your spirit army is headed this way as we speak, and I don't know about you, but I'm not interested in hanging around to find out if an entire army of Lotus Assassins is their match. I doubt they'd recognize you either, much less listen to your command. So let's set aside whatever differences we have for now and just focus on getting out. It wouldn't be much of a rescue if I left you here anyway."

She tried to give him a smile but the joke didn't go over at all. For a moment she was afraid that Zu might consider attacking her again. She counted up to four before he finally reached a decision and relaxed his stance, folding his hands over his chest to give her an appraising look. Snow favored him with a tight grin which he didn't return.

"That is easier said than done. _You_ might be able to simply walk out of here if you like, but I doubt that Sky would take kindly to me leaving. Although, if what you claim is true, I doubt it would take long for him to figure out the difference and grow suspicious anyway."

"Sky?_Sky_'s here? Is he a prisoner too?" She frowned at Zu, remembering what he had said during his earlier delirium. "No, no. Of course not." Her mind scrambled to put more pieces of this strange world together even as her heart was wrenched by the revelation: first by relief and then by pain, the heart-twisting pain of realization followed by revulsion in its wake. She bit her mouth to keep it from quivering and fought not to show weakness. She couldn't deny it. She had seen it in Sky's eyes when she first met him in Gao the Pirate's den. It was in his voice when he spoke about hunting down the men responsible for killing Pinmei. The shadow and darkness had always been there, it merely needed something to give it form. She guessed, unhappily, that it must have been her, the twisted version of 'her' that Zu was trying to uncover with his questions. She looked to him, hoping he would tell her she was wrong.

"If you must know… Sky is the one who commanded the slaughter in the fields. He kept me alive to question me for the whereabouts of Dawn Star and Sun Li."

The genuine look of shock and grief on her face surprised Zu, though he was leery of trusting her, remembering the subtle edge of anger he heard earlier in her voice. Monshuiye had never spoken an unkind word to anyone, not even in the most desperate of situations, at least, not until she became Blood. But he had to admit right now that he couldn't feel any trace of the near-palatable waves of fear and anger that followed in her presence since she became the Empress-Goddess. Despite his misgivings, he found himself giving credence to the belief that for whatever reason, she really wasn't the same woman as when they had last met. Regardless of the cause for her sudden weakness, Zu hoped he could use it to his advantage.

Snow studied Zu's face carefully while she chose her next words, trying to digest the information while registering the odd mixture of calculation and confusion in his eyes. Did he really hope to accomplish something with such transparent provocations? Nothing helpful, it seemed. Metaphorically swallowing the irritation, she made an attempt to reassure him.

"I really didn't know, Zu," she said and hoped she appeared sincere. "Does this mean that he's working for me? Whoever this 'me' is that you seem to think I am. That must mean those atrocities would have been committed in my name, right? Or, rather…" the strange name came disdainfully to her lips, "Blood's."

Zu didn't respond, but she continued. "I'll admit I find all this hard to believe. I don't want to think he could have turned out that way… I… I never would have suspected." The last part was only partially a lie. She _had_ noticed some of Sky's shadier tendencies, but decided that complete honesty wasn't always the best policy. "I have a lot of questions about what's happened to you since the Lotus Assassin fortress, Zu, and I'm sure your have questions for me too. I promise I'll try to explain everything once we get out of this camp and I hope you'll do the same. In light of our mutual difficulty, can we call it a truce?"

He still looked at her dubiously. Snow ran a hand through her matted hair and laid out the rest of her tiles.

"Look, I can see that you don't want to trust me, and whatever your reasons, I'm choosing to believe they're good ones. But I really don't remember half the things you're accusing me of doing. Killing Lian? Commanding the Lotus Assassins? I can't imagine why you'd think that after everything we've been through, especially since we've been fighting them since Two Rivers." She raised her hand to stop him before he could disagree. "Please, allow me to finish. I actually have some of my own theories about what's going on, but I need to know more before I can be sure. In the meantime, I'd like you to understand that I'm working with you, and I need your trust, even if it's just for now." She held Zu's gaze earnestly and waited until she knew he had agreed. She watched the gradual change in the color of his aura from an uncertain gray to a steady red before continuing.

Satisfied, she nodded and said, "I may have a suggestion for how to get out of here, but I'm going to need your help. I need you to tell me a little something… about myself… " She knelt and began stripping the body of the Lotus Assassin at their feet while she outlined her plan. After more baleful glaring and some thinly veiled insults, she managed to convince Zu that for the last time she really was _not_ trying to kill him and persuaded him to give her a more or less objective description of Blood's mannerisms and behavior. Zu was outfitted in the acolyte Executioner's armor, which fit distressingly well on the ex-Assassin's lean frame, and they strapped the poor dead man's body into the stocks. They had to mutilate him a little to make the pretense of torture and injury to look convincing, but fortunately, the body had not yet set into rigor mortis and they were able to draw some real blood which she smeared over the dead man's face.

The identity switch complete, Snow held the lock in her hands for a moment and focused on calling up the power to meld the metal back together. Her hands glowed red and blue then white again and it was done. Zu watched her work curiously, drawn in despite himself. She gave him a sideways glance and arched an eyebrow, but he quickly looked away. Snow smirked. As a finishing touch she added the gray sash around the dead Assassin's face. They'd probably be long gone by the time anyone would even dare to check, but the strategist in her demanded no less.

_The armor fits him perfectly_, she thought as she turned to appraise Zu's disguise, though she kept the opinion to herself. _I'm sure Zu would just be delighted to know that he still looks every inch the Assassin after all this time_.

"Ready?" she asked as she ran her fingers through her hair and tried to shake out the stray clumps of drying mud.

"Way before you," he scoffed.

"Then — _I HOPE YOU ARE PREPARED TO DIE LIKE THE DOG YOU ARE, SAGACIOUS ZU._" She suddenly charged at him and let loose a powerful kick, augmenting her attack with a wave of chi to send Zu flying out the tent and into the night. A shout of alarm went about the camp as Assassins came running out of other tents, and guards turned mid-march to stop and stare.

Energy crackled about her like a blue and purple dust storm as the tent shook under the pressurized release of her power. Ropes strained and snapped against their pegs, causing the sides of the tent to go flying upwards, billowing wildly between the storm of energy below and the rainy sky above. Two very startled guards turned around and found themselves facing the fury of a goddess's wrath, tent and hair streaming behind her, buffeted by the tempest of her chi. Her eyes flashed a dangerous and unnatural ruby red.

"Forgive us, Empress!" sputtered the guard on the right dressed in orange robes as he fell to his face on the ground in a deep kowtow. His body bent rigidly in obeisance and his hands were folded like a temple roof over the top of his head. "Please! Forgive us!"

Blood was thrumming in her ears as power raced throughout her body and Snow stepped forward to glare contemptuously down at the pitiful man. _Kill him,_ came the voice from the woods again and it kept echoing in her mind._Kill them all! It is our blood right. End his miserable existence and relish our power. Use it, kill him!_

_No!_ Snow resisted, fighting the temptation, to unleash the power in her into the land and wash the world in fire and light.

_We are the same, you and I. I am you and you are I._ It whispered, _And yes, oh yes, we are divine…_

_Of course we are_. Mongshuiye flexed her hands. Such power danced at her fingertips. _There's nothing else in the world we'd rather be._

**Footnote:**

1) Mah-Jong. A four-person game wherein players each holds thirteen or sixteen tiles based on the variation of the game and compete to be the first to complete a set of tiles containing three to four consecutive or identical tile sequences from the same suite. The winner of the game is the first to reveal their complete set, thus the common reference to "showing all your tiles" meaning the laying out of all your plans.


	8. Part VIII

* * *

**Part VIII: Divine Intervention**

* * *

"I can think of quite a few other places I'd rather be right now!" squawked Zin Bu the Magic Abacus as the gutted corpse of another Lotus Assassin went flying past his head. Entrails followed like sodden streamers and he cringed as part of the wet mass brushed his cheek. "C-c-can we turn back now?"

"Why?" Black Whirlwind roared, paying the diminutive god little heed, "This is a good fight!" The giant warrior moved amongst the shattered remnants of stone golems that lay about his feet like scattered crumbs of _jian bing_. Pieces crunched satisfactorily underfoot as he stepped to lope off another Lotus Assassin's head. In the same fluid motion he brought the momentum of the axe handle cracking down on the back of an Imperial soldier's neck.

Black Whirlwind had stood easily head to head with the seven feet tall stone golems that he had cut down, and the towering sight of him and his dripping blades now sent the remaining soldiers and Assassins packing. Zin Bu, who was perched on his shoulder, flapped his arms wildly in the long Mandarin sleeves of his robe as he hopped from one side to another, shouting hysterically.

"Because… Wait, what's that in the — aaagh!" yelled Zin Bu and the agitated god's response was lost to the cry of more Lotus Assassin death screams as the jerking motion of Black Whirlwind's arms finally threw him from his perch.

Black Whirlwind ignored his companion as he hurried to catch up with the remaining fighters who fled. _Chop, chop, chop!_ Black Whirlwind thought happily as he raced towards the Lotus Assassin camp in the west, felling trees and soldiers right and left in his excitement along the way. _Chop, chop, chop! _Behind him, Zin Bu raised his head blearily and looked into the bloodless face of a disembodied Lotus Assassin. A trickle of red ran down the side of the man's wan cheek.

"_Yeeagh_!" Zin Bu shrieked and his arms sunk into something unpleasant. "Ugh!"

"Waaaait!" he cried to the departing backside of his partner, perspiration forming on his lip. But Black Whirlwind was gone. The minor god grumbled distastefully as he knocked away the bodiless head and tried to pull himself to his feet. His fall had dropped him into the stiffening arms of a pile of corpses, and he cursed without repeating himself for a full two minutes while he disentangled his limbs from the grip of bodies quickly cooling with rigor mortis.

As he succeeded in pushing the last armless body off his brightly pantalooned legs, the transparent shape of a ghost stalked by and he looked up and through the bare and bony fingers of trees to see a growing column of light in the sky. He sprang up. Red and purple energy gathered in the western horizon, forming a column to the sky. He did some quick calculations on his right hand, tapping the tip of his thumb against the points of his fingers in quick succession.

"Seven-seven, forty-nine," he said to no one in particular, chewing on his thin moustache. "That's too soon! But maybe it's the sign we've been waiting for..." The musing words were cut short as a group of angry spirits swept past and enveloped him in dread.

"Never any time," he complained as his hands moved in an intricate pattern. He cast his divine senses about for the presence of Black Whirlwind. "Damnable drunk," Zin Bu muttered, "I should never have told him about the wine cache in the camp." Thin white smoke began to rise and enveloped the little god, and his hands moved in a folding motion, as if pulling the mist about his body. In a moment he was gone. In the space where he had stood the rain continued to fall hotly on the broken bodies of the dead as the water droplets beat a steady tempo beneath the march of angry spirits.

Elsewhere, Black Whirlwind was having the time of his life. Or, at least, what he could remember of it. He couldn't remember the last time he had had such a good fight… not since he stormed the Northern Pei Fang Fortress by himself drunk, naked, and screaming, anyway.

"AHAHAHAHA! Come to my axes, all of you!" He charged at the fleeing fighters who scurried to avoid his blades and pumped both his arms in the air with obscene glee. He chortled to himself as The Voice shouted attributions to his glory. RAVAGER OF MEN! It boomed. TAKER OF LIVES!

At the edge of the forest, Black Whirlwind found himself faced with another squadron of clay and stone golems who guarded the camp perimeter and now rushed to throw themselves onto his blades. Obligingly, he chopped off arms and legs and heads as he demolished his way towards the Assassins' camp. Soldiers shouted in alarm and the loud sound of a war trumpet blared, announcing his approach. Spotting a large open tent with smoke rising from the sides, he took one giant step and leapt into the campground, landing with a loud and squishy thump by the tented cooking fires.

"Where's the wine!" Black Whirlwind demanded from a shuddering cook as he lifted the small man off the ground with his large hands.

"Daaagh! Don't kill m_eeee_!" The man sobbed violently, his eyes glued to the notched and bloodied surface of the axe Black Whirlwind waved below his chin. The legs of the cook's pants were shaking dark and wet with the smell of piss. "I'll tell you anything, just please, _pleeease_! I have two daughters and a wife and my poor old mother…"

"Aw, you're no fun, you're just a scared little monkey man with an apron. Stop blubbering and be like a man!" Black Whirlwind shook the little cook again. "Or just tell me where the wine is and I'll be on my way."

The cook pointed a trembling finger in the direction of the dining tent. Black Whirlwind dropped the man and began stalking in the tent's direction. An armed troop of Imperial guards and Assassins jumped uncertainly into his path, brandishing shaking spears and puny swords. Black Whirlwind opened his mouth to give them his most encouraging grin. Broken teeth splayed against thick lips and his large tongue rolled against the sides of his mouth in anticipation. A few of the soldiers blanched. The orange-robed Lotus Inquisitor leading the pack snarled and brought his hands together as if holding an invisible ball. "Tempest!" he cried and pushed his hands forward, sending a whirling vortex shooting from his hands that swept Black Whirlwind off his feet.

"Hey!" The giant warrior cried with annoyance, "You're going to be the first one I gut when I get my feet back on the ground!"

"You idiot," said the Lotus Assassin, "by the time you get back on the ground you'll be dead." He unsheathed a sword in his hands and waved it, its tip reflecting green with poisonous coating.

"I don't think so," said a high but steady voice. A thin stream of smoke materialized beside Black Whirlwind and in a minute Zin Bu appeared, patting his long sleeve pockets as if looking for something. "Aha!" he said and pulled out a round orange ball. "Catch," he told the Assassin and tossed the exploding dragon's eye grenade into the man's unsuspecting hands. _Kabloom!_ The Lotus Inquisitor disappeared under a soft haze of black smoke and charred flesh splattered around the small crater where the Assassin had stood. Black Whirlwind was dropped unceremoniously onto his back.

"A gift from the mad inventor Kang." Zin Bu pulled out a string of more balls. Behind him Black Whirlwind grunted and staggered to his feet.

"Anyone else?" The remaining soldiers fled. "Oh good," Zin Bu said, wiping his brow and dropping the useless string of prayer beads. "'Cuz these were just a bluff."

* * *

The trees of the forest whispered frightened words to each other in a language only gods and foliage could understand. In the intangible confines of her prison Blood sneered. She reached out with her soul-self and tried to pull the chi from the trees to strengthen her, forced by her confinement to such meager meals. From her host she felt resistance and she snarled. _This could all be ours_, she thought, _This world, this power, we could bend everything to our will. What does it matter if a little life is lost? In the end it will serve a greater goal. We'll consume it all and make it ours. All else is insignificant, worthless. We could destroy everything, __**everything**__ and make it ours._

_No_, Snow thought back, resistant. _No. Who are you? How are you in my mind?_

_I am you, s_he said, _We are the same._

Silence. The opening between their minds was closed, and the soul of the goddess was less than patient. She raged, throwing what remained of her power against the bindings of a soul as strong as her own. For a moment she almost regained control. The labyrinthine soul-world of winding corridors and intricately designed false doors she found herself trapped in blurred. For a moment she looked through her real eyes and saw the barren branches of wet trees and rain. But then the will of the other drove her back and flung her far into the gray corridors of her prison once again.

The goddess howled. She beat the ground and tried to tear through the walls but the barriers stood strong. She seethed, unable to change the events happening all around, unable to bend the world to her favor.

Her hand moved over the smooth surface of the floor and noted the neatness of the etchings on the ground before each doorway, archaic script that marked the rooms beyond. Memories of Childhood. She tried the door. It opened into another wall. Her initial rage slaked, a dangerous and thoughtful gleam replaced the fire in her eyes. Here was a mind whose structure was familiar, whose defenses were as guarded as her own. Blood took a hard long look at the oblique corridors and winding passageways of Snow's soul. But no fortress was completely impenetrable. She squared her jaw. Seething with deadly purpose, she set off in search of a weakness to exploit in her captor's mind.


	9. Part IX

* * *

**Part IX: Rebellion**

* * *

Discord reared its head, pawing the ground like an impatient stallion, eager to flex muscles stiff and too-long unused. It raced through the hearts of the nearest soldiers, inspiring fear and a cold sweat down their backs, and sent the less staunch fleeing recklessly through the dark while others tried to brace themselves with spears and swords.

The haunted eyes of spirits danced accusingly around the remaining fighters, pouring through the woods and hot rain into the heart of the camp. They came with their ire through the dark land like the storming sky, and though only those trained in the art of chi manipulation could see it, all could feel the darkness of the power that course; sapped energy from the bent forms of trees, and chi torn from the natural ley lines of the land sent hurtling towards a single destination.

The energy lapped around the figure of a solitary woman, deep red and purple radiance pooling itself around her and erupting upwards like a challenge to the heavens. The army of spirits moved with sure determination towards her, drawn like long-necked buzzards to the taste of carrion death. The pillar of light beckoned. They could almost feel the heat of bitter vengeance on their lips.

Almost.

In an unspoken pact they had come. They would be avenged.

* * *

On the other side of the camp, the rebel army skidded down the last few feet of the mountain. They took advantage of the distraction caused by the spirits' advance to sprint the last ten meters of forest dividing the mountainside from the perimeter of the camp. A disorderly group of soldiers met them half-way, screaming at the top of their lungs and swinging their weapons wildly without thought.

"Watch out!" Dawn Star cried as she parried a blow meant for Kia Min's head, deflecting the spear with her sword and kicking its owner hard across the chest, sending him sprawling as she stepped up to defend the other woman.

"My thanks," grunted Kia Min and she wasted no time driving her own spear through the man's unguarded throat. The other fleeing soldiers swerved to avoid them, running past the trees and into the night, their cries of terror swallowed by the steady beat of the rain.

The two women looked at each other, eyebrows raised.

"I don't like the looks of this," Kia Min said.

"Neither do I, but we still needto get through the camp and reach the pass. Take my father with your fighters. I'll gather a few others and try to find out what's going on."

Kia Min nodded. Sun Li arrived with more of the rebel soldiers in tow.

"Father, please allow Kia Min to attend you to Dirge. I'll rejoin you later."

A querying look crossed the old man's wrinkled face and his eyes darted into the distance, where the Imperial soldiers had fled, before coming back to Dawn Star's face.

"Be safe, my child," Li said, and he laid a hand on Dawn Star's arm. "Whatever this new threat is, it appears to work in our favor, for now. But do not forget that our true goal lies elsewhere."

"I know, father."

Li nodded. His grip tightened and his eyes grew more intent. In a lower voice, he added, "Find Zu, then, if you can. And bring the both of you back to me safely."

Dawn Star's jaw dropped. _Am I really that transparent_? "I… I will do everything in my power. I'll meet up with you soon, father. I promise. Soon."

"You'd better hurry," Kia Min interrupted, her voice tight and urgent. "It looks like you won't have much time." She stared fixedly in the direction of the Lotus Assassin camp.

"Heaven forgive us," Dawn Star breathed as she followed Kia Min's gaze, "What is_ that_?"

* * *

A blaze of blue light shot through the campground, as tall as a man and moving at dazzling speed directly into one of the larger tents. The fierce bolt burned a circular hole through the entrance and collided with the dining table, splintering wood and sending ceramic cups and half-eaten dishes flying.

The surprised Imperial soldiers looked uncertainly at each from the bowls of rice in their hands to the chopsticks poised midair and back again at the empty space where their dinner had been. From the wreckage a Lotus Assassin stumbled roughly to his feet, apparently unharmed, greasy slivers of sautéed kailaan and broiled pig's fat sliding off him onto the ground. Soy sauce dripped down his face, following the faint lines of scars. His head was bald save for a small knot of hair at the top.

"She needs better aim," he muttered cryptically as his head swiveled around and took in the situation. Finally, his eyes came to rest on the weapons rack by the entrance. Without another word he grabbed one of the spears and ran back out into the gloom.

"Was that a training exercise?" one soldier asked another.

"Who knows?" his friend shrugged. "They never tell us anything."

"True. What I wouldn't give to be on assignment in the Imperial City right now. Dull as hell, yeah, but anything tops this damn rain."

"Whatever, Cho." The speaker eyed the crispy chicken still clutched in his friend's chopsticks. "Hey, are you going to eat that?"

* * *

Dawn Star parted with her father and Kia Min with hurried goodbyes and worried looks after consulting briefly with Hui, her tactical advisor and an old soldier who had served for years under her father's command, and selecting a small band of five warriors for her scouting party. On the ground, Hui had already sketched out a rough map of the camp, and now the old soldier gestured to the map while she spoke:

"Here are the caves — this is where we are — and here is Dirge. According to Kia Min's earlier report, the layout of the camp is divided into roughly five sections: the southern perimeter, as we know, faces the forest and is guarded by golems. I haven't seen any on our way down so far, but we can't assume that the spirit army has taken care of them for us. Chances are they're being deployed against whatever this new threat is that the Lotus Assassins are facing, but we can't bet on it and we won't know for certain until we go in to find out."

Pointing to the area around the pass, Hui continued, "The dining and sleeping tents are here, and here, at the back, so we'll rule out the possibility of prisoners being held there for the present. In any case, we can always try for a sweep on our way out if necessary. To the northeast is the lookout tower and what appears to be a large fire. Our primary goals are to relieve any and all prisoners and to investigate the nature of the disturbance. Leave the fighting and dying to a minimum.

"We're here, at the western end. It's just a long landing strip for the large transportation flyers. Enemy encounters should be at a minimum, but keep close to the shadows and guard your neighbor's back. Once we're in, avoid the central tent. The Lord Sky and his Guild will probably be found closest the central tent and I do _not_ want to lose a single one of my fighters to that haughty bastard."

She looked directly at Dawn Star, "Let's hope that we won't need to go in that deep to find Zu."

Dawn Star was surprised to find herself irritated at the way Zu's name caught in Hui's voice. _That's right_, she realized with a pang, _Hui and Zu have had a long past…_ She was annoyed at herself for the inexplicable swell of jealousy. She pushed aside the emotions. _They're old friends. Finding him is a priority for her too. _For the group's benefit, Dawn Star nodded in approval and looked around. "Any questions? Good. Then let's move out."

Dawn Star and her warriors ran east towards the tents in the shadows cast by fuelless fires swinging in clear glass globes. But they needn't have bothered. The camp was in chaos. Vengeful ghosts swept in from the southeast with ethereal swords that cut down soldiers with deadly reality. When the rebels' paths crossed with those of the dead, Dawn Star stepped forward and in a gesture of power, commanded them to leave. Obediently, the spirits wandered off in search of other prey. The power of second sight was her by birthright and usually a curse, but at times like these, it became a tiny blessing. A few lumbering golems came dutifully and were dispatched with bladed efficiency. Thus far, no Lotus Assassins appeared in sight.

The northeastern glow she saw from the camp perimeter was growing larger. She watched as it shot up, a bright and vibrant pillar piercing the heavens, and its movement was paralleled by a supernatural wave of dread and terror that convulsed inside her stomach.

Her sword hand gripped the weapon until her knuckles turned white. With an effort, she buried her fear beneath thoughts of duty and the promise she had made. _Focus,_ Dawn Star thought, _Stay focused_. Mentally, she formed the image of a barrier between herself and the dark chi that emanated from the column. The fighters who followed her had also turned pale, and a few stopped in their tracks to retch. She paused in concern, but wiping their mouths weakly, they lifted their swords and gestured for her to continue.

She pointed two to a tent and they began the sweep. The first tent was full of equipment: gauntlets, spearheads, greaves, helmets, padded tunics, and small containers of polish. The second contained extra canvas and pegs and wooden poles for smaller tents. In the third they found casks of Dragon Power. Hui had her partner bring Dawn Star and the rest to the tent and the older woman looked at the girl and the flyers meaningfully.

"It will take us a little longer," Hui said, still looking a little pale, "but if we split into two groups, one of them can handle setting the explosives while I take the rest to investigate."

Dawn Star found herself grinning despite the dangers they faced. The amount of dragon powder in the tent would create a series of explosions worthy of the Mad Kang himself. "The canvas we found earlier will be useful for transporting the casks through this rain," she said, but looked critically at the old soldier, "But I won't let you send yourself to your death, Hui. I'll go."

The older woman began to argue, but Dawn Star cut her off. "No. None of you will be able to even stand if we get much closer." Her voice softened. "You won't be of no use to anyone, least of all me, if you're dead. Stay here and direct the demolition. I'll travel much quicker alone and I'll be there and back as soon as I find out what's going on."

Shadows darkened Hui's face and Dawn Star suddenly realized how worn the woman looked. But she was right. There was no one else who_ could_ go with her.

"Alright, but _be careful_. General Li would never forgive me if anything happened to you."

"I will not to fail you." Dawn Star smiled sadly. "May Gwan Ying guard you until we meet again." She clasped her right palm around her left fist and bade the older woman farewell. She didn't mention that this would be their last goodbyes.

The rain was hot and sticky and clotted on her clothes like blood. The taste of the iron in the red earth mingled with the scent of blood in the air.

Dawn Star continued through the camp quickly, circling around the southern end bordered by the forest to avoid any encounters with soldiers and Assassins. The shattered husks of a few golems littered the edges, and more ghosts swarmed over them, heading towards the light. A few tried to stop her but she used her power to command them to leave. As she moved, she ducked her head briefly into the tents she passed, hoping to find Zu before the end. Although, how she was going to stop him from coming along if she found him, she hadn't figured out yet. But there was no denying what she had to do.

Dawn Star already knew who she faced. A young lifetime of study together… how could she not recognize the aura of her friend? Even with its dark taint, she had immediately known the source of the chi. Monshuiye. They hadn't seen each other since… since their confrontation in the Imperial Palace. Dawn Star had escaped alive, but if it hadn't been for Lian and Hou's sacrifice…

She hadn't told Hui. The older woman would have bound and gagged her rather than let her go face the Empress alone. Dawn Star could only hope that she was strong enough to buy enough time for her father and Kia Min to get to Dirge. It was bad of her to break a promise, she knew, but in the end, she hoped that they'd understand.

The rain fell on her face like hot tears. _Even the heavens are crying for the depth of the corruption in the land,_she thought. Perhaps, when this was all over, her father and Hui would plant a garden in her memory. She had lost the one in Two Rivers when her hometown had been burned to the ground and had always spoken of building a new one in memory of the ones who had fallen. She allowed herself to speculate, It would be just a little bit ironic if it's going to be in memory of me.

She didn't sense the group of Assassins until they appeared suddenly from the shadows of a tent, seemingly unaffected by the panic that possessed the Imperial soldiers. Green energy glowed around their wrists. Behind them Dawn Star saw the column of red and purple light not far away, like an ugly bruise across the sky. She readied her sword. With a cry, she summoned the spirits of the fallen to her, but her cry became a scream of pain as a dagger buried up to its hilt in her side. Dawn Star staggered as her legs buckled and she fell to her knees.

The ghosts still came, drawn by her power to engage the Assassins, but it was too late. She could feel the burn of poison creeping through her body. She pulled out the dagger with a wince and clamped her off-hand to her side; trying to suppress the spread of poison with her chi. A sword came flying at her face. Dawn Star rolled and parried, but with a flick of the wrist, her opponent sent her blade flying from her unsteady hand.

Two black clad warriors approached, their outlines blurry in the rain. As they got closer, the figures resolved itself into one. Dawn Star blinked foggily and looked up into the face of Sweet Poison Lynn, a woman she had met once in the company of Monshuiye and Sky years ago in the Imperial Arena. A master poisoner and a deadly warrior, Lynn was also an elite member of Sky's underground Guild.

Dawn Star gritted her teeth as her innards tried to claw their way out of her body. Poison Lynn was grinning. The other woman turned and drove her foot into Dawn Star's gut. Dawn Star doubled over.

Time seemed to slow. The blades that came swinging towards her glowed green and she watched the poison carved a path of emerald light towards her neck. Ineffectually, she raised an arm over her head and cringed.

* * *

Darkness.

She sped through the sunless labyrinth of thought; corridors of part imagination and part memory that echoed her footsteps and reverberated the sound through every conceivable permutation. The way this place resounded with her every move made her tongue lash against her teeth. Everywhere she turned she could hear the click-click of boot-steps meeting stone. How had the darkness found her here?

She paused by another false doorway twenty paces down from a semi-circular gray antechamber. The sounds of her passage faded, but from not far behind came the measured clip-clip of footsteps in pursuit. It was slow, but it never stopped. Sooner or later, the darkness was going to catch up. It gave her some measure of bitter satisfaction to know that it was trapped here much as she was, but she doubted she could use that to her advantage.

Blood tapped the wall by the door gently and waited for the echo to fade. Then, she repeated herself, tapping and walking softly until she heard the wall ring hollow beneath her fist. She ran her fingers over the gray wall, combing the surface for unseen abnormalities. Her hand came to rest against an almost imperceptible dent an inch from the ground in the shape of her hand. She pressed down and heard a satisfying _swsshh_.

On silent hinges the door opened, so seamlessly that she could never have found it had she not already known it was there. Blood stepped inside. Sunlight fell across her hair.


	10. Part X

* * *

**Part X: The Path of Destiny**

* * *

It was just as beautiful as she expected it to be.

Sunlight kissed the meadow grass and danced off a stream, which flowed from beneath a wooden bridge leading to a farmhouse. The thatched farm stood encircled by a low fence of poorly-matched logs, each slumping against its neighbor in a quaint, lopsided fashion. The stream carved a crescent around one side of the farmhouse before running as far away as she could see. Green fields rolled into the horizon where they became soft hills.

It reminded her of the refrain from a song of her hometown, Two Rivers.

_Spring wind, soft skies,_

_Swallows sing, two rivers part._

_Rain flows, bird flies,_

_Light of sun, seed in earth's heart._

The song began with a praise of life and springtime, the farmers raising their voices to laud the sun for its blessing light while the fishermen cried their gratitude to Southern Wind for his halcyon breathe. The platitudes continue for several verses and ― in as much as peasants can make clever references ― clever reference is made to Emperor Sagacious Tien and his noble descendents as rulers of as great and immortal a glory as the life-giving Sun.

But then, the seasons turn and blight shrivels the land. The peasants begin to bemoan the fates that cursed their land with drought.

_Summer heat, harvest fall,  
Winter's heart will cover all.  
Where is the heart of Sun's light now?  
Where is the heart of Sun's might now?_

_River's dry! the children cry,  
Men beg and pray to Heaven.  
Livestock die! the women cry,  
Men beg and pray to Heaven._

When Heavens turn a blind eye to the pleas of the peasants, only the Emperor and his line are to blame — they have failed as mediators between mortals and gods, and the family's callousness is compared to the withering glare of the celestial wheel. It only proved how fickle peasants could be, really, though the song itself was older than the recent drought just over a quarter of a century ago.

She had forgotten about the Two Rivers song until she chanced to hear it in passing Tien's Landing. Two Rivers was long gone; burned to the ground by the previous Emperor's madness, and his brother's ambition. She had never dreamed she'd be reminded of her home by the broken lips of a singer in a wayward town, but the song brought unexpected closure to questions she had been grappling with. _Had_ she done the right thing when she assumed the throne? _Was_ the bargain she had struck for a second chance the right choice?_Could_ the path she now walked have been avoided?

Her lips quirked at the irony; the answer had been before her all along. All it took was a peasant song to lead her to the proof.

The song stayed with her for days, weeks, haunting her sleepless godhood, until deep in the recesses of the Imperial Archives, she discovered the records of droughts that regularly devastated the Jade Empire. The village song she had learned as a child was a part of that tradition. "As a reminder that man should never slight the Five Auspices of Heaven," Li Po the Golden Scholar wrote, "It was decreed in the annals of Destiny that every sixteen cycles, the land should be barren." _Every two hundred years,_ Blood's lip curled,_ And they _willed_ it._

Contrary to what her enemies liked to believe, Blood knew she was no wanton ruler. She fought against the injustice of Heaven with everything in her power, and it was she alone who sustained the Jade Empire now, giving just enough to keep the mindless shell of the Water Dragon alive. The body of the dragon goddess still hung, cut and bleeding, in the central tomb of the flying Imperial Palace, a message to her celestial enemies. Its lifeblood was the source of the pure water that poured down and nourished the land below.

Predictably, the gods cried sacrilege and treachery, claiming that her actions violated not only the sanctity between man and divinity, but unbalanced the harmony of the universe.

"Then Destiny is wrong," she told them, "And the time has come for mortals to write their own fates."

Blood stood in the cloud hall of the gods, before the Celestial Court. As they looked uncomfortably at each other, distressed by her words, she savored the fear in their eyes. They were threatened by her ability to see through their pathetic, self-serving Bureaucracy! Yet they refused to budge. Her enemies foolishly underestimated both the determination and power that she commanded.

"Monshuiye, the Books of Destiny cannot be altered," said Zin Bu the Magic Abacus, the useless peddler god who had once accompanied her on her journeys. She disliked that he accorded himself entirely too much familiarity for his brief service.

"The natural occurrences of drought in the Empire is a counter-balance for the years of prosperity that precede and follow it. For every yang, there is a yin, and such is the nature of the universe. The consequences of tampering with this existing harmony ― _aggck!_" She didn't allow his simpering to stay her hand when she chose to silence him with a blow to the neck.

The Celestial Court flew into an uproar.

"I'm not interested in your excuses," Blood sneered. "And I'm certainly not here for your lectures."

"Touch any one of us again and I will personally crush you, bone by bone!" growled the sullen elephant guardian Shinning Tusk. Blood's eyes narrowed in challenge.

"Your masters are too cowardly to allow you to make good on your pathetic threats," she scoffed, and turned to the remainder of the Celestial Court. "You sit in your fetid little heavens playing rain and cloud games with your own pitiful flesh. What right have you to decree how men live or die? You have no right! You know nothing of suffering or pain or loss! I will show you! Follow me and live. Oppose me, and even gods will die." (1)

"Utuhir sita kata toun!" (Begone, Usurper!) raged the Forest Shadow, fox goddess of the Great Southern Forest. She bared her fangs. "Prawa unmou cheeni ohusu saka, daikiitium ouso watakakaroum!" (Keep your madness to yourself! I no longer know you!)

"Enough!" commanded Liwen, the Heavenly Sage. "There will be no blood spilled on sacred ground! I hereby declare your audience at an end, godling. The Celestial Court will tolerate no more sacrilege from _you_." The god spat the last words, his disdain clear. "Leave before the Seven Guardians become necessary to remove you."

She regarded the Court coolly before leaving them with her parting words. "You'll live to regret your decision," she promised.

The injustices of Heaven stung like a thousand lashing needles and she swore that she would subdue Destiny itself in defiance of the gods, and rewrite the Celestial Writ to her will if necessary. The first god to challenge her was S'heng Yien, the All-Seeing Minister of the East and the patron god of just law enforcers; and he very nearly ended her existence. But she had made a pact with a power greater than gods, and greater than death ― and even the gods had to heed the zither tune of death if it called for them ― but she lived. With the aid of the demon Ya Zhen and with her servant Death's Hand at her side, she made sure S'heng regretted ever having interfered in her path.

Her wrath towards the Heavens was terrible, and every opponent she defeated added to her power. In time, those who opposed her were destroyed, be they god or man, save the few who she chose to preserve. Finally, it had come to this, and she was one mere step away from finishing her gambit. The assumption of the Mantle of Heaven would finally give her the power to change the Books of Destiny that she had been denied. And after she Ascended, she would also have the power to seal off all contact with the outside world. Already, the Wall in the northern border of the Empire was nearing completion. Even the darkness beyond death to which she was beholden wouldn't be able to reach her then. With finality she could put an end to all loss. For all of Eternity she would protect the Empire — protect it, and preserve it. There would never again be drought, or famine, or death in the Jade Empire. The cycle would be broken.

There was just the matter of freeing herself from this prison.

Blood crossed the bridge to the farmhouse and followed the footpath along the stream. The bed of white clay reminded her of the north bank of Two Rivers, and as she walked, she could see two bands of dark blue and gold energy fluttering like ribbons in clear current.

The meadows, the stream, and the farm were everything that she had once imagined Sky's home might have been; before reality taught her that eight years' absence was time enough for even the most well-cared for of houses to fall to ruin, and the tiny shack that she finally found was nothing like the quaintly-fenced courtyard she now walked into. Like the peasant homes that emulated the grand houses of the rich, the farmhouse consisted of four wings surrounding a central courtyard. A large but simple fountain flowed into a small, deep pond that became the stream, but unlike typical farmhouses, one of the 'walls' of the courtyard opened into the bridge which allowed the stream to flow outwards. Plain yellow and blue flowers and tall grass covered the ground where the footpath of flat stones led from the bridge to the fountain.

She could sense her captor's essence, close. It was common knowledge that all people had two souls. The higher _huen_, which was written using a combination of the characters for cloud and ghost, was the seat of power, where the consciousness of an individual rested. The lower spirit, _po_, was the animal instinct, the basic life force of all creatures. The fountain before her was merely the spiritual representation of a life force and the flow of chi, but the true source of power, where soul met body and the divisions of spirit, _huen_ and _po_, were joined lay deeper below. If she was to reclaim her true power from this usurper, Blood would have to venture even deeper into her host's soul.

Blood approached the pond. Images flickered in the pool, a window to another world, and she leaned forward, curious. The clear, mirror-like surface of the water was still and untouched by the movement of currents below it. Rain, canvas, and the firelight of a brazier glowing on a dirt floor. An inattentive guard dozed by a broken prisoner.

"_Monshuiye!"_growled the prisoner, and her host gasped._ "Zu! But you're supposed to be dead!"_

_Dead?_ Blood wondered, intrigued. The image in the pool flickered back to the inattentive Assassin.

_Kill him_, Blood suggested, _Add his life force to our own_

_No_, her host balked. Blood frowned. _He already chose his path before we ever met. I can't afford raising an alarm and fighting an entire Lotus Assassin army right now._

Blood shrugged. _Justify it however you like. _

She watched her host snap the man's neck like a dry twig. It was nothing if one more amongst her warriors died, but the other woman's behavior was… puzzling. Blood did not like fighting an enemy unknown, and the unfamiliar process behind her host's actions troubled her. It would bear observation.

_Such a waste of life_. Blood felt her mouth twitch. Had the words come from her host or herself? She peered again into the water.

The vision in the pool returned to Zu, and she saw that his bruised energy groped the air like blind man in water, seeking land. Blood smiled. No doubt he was a gift from darling Sky. She was pleased to see that her lover had thought to get such a delicious prize for her Ascension. It was this kind of thoughtfulness that she had always enjoyed about him.

But her host had other ideas. She watched the woman look about and gauge the chains that held Zu prisoner. Then she saw her host reach out and grasp the chains. Below the surface of the pool, the blue and golden ribbons of light thickened and swirled before striking out with the suddenness of a preying snake. Bright chi energy shot forth and caught Blood off her guard. She fell back with a shriek, shielding her eyes.

When the burst faded, she lowered her arms and looked again. The pool still throbbed with a low light, infecting the stream with its brilliance as far as her eye could see, but it was bearable to look at. She watched as her host poured chi into Zu's wounds, healing and even increasing his energy. It was a mere pittance of her real might but… _Expending all that power to help a broken man? Pathetic._

If her host had heard her, the woman ignored it. The Empress's eyes narrowed. _No one binds, and no one dismisses me. No one._ She stood and glared at the pool, her patience evaporated. This indignity had gone on long enough.

In one fluid motion Blood dove into the water, following the power deep, deep, deep into the source of the pool. There was no need to breath, because the water was not real, and the low luminance of the pool itself provided all the light that she needed. The bands of blue and gold chi stung when she brushed by them, burning her with the intensity of the power, so she swam to avoid them. _A power that should be rightfully mine_. She thought. _A misappropriation soon to be rectified_.

Time passed and she reached the sandy bottom. A green crystal the size of her fist lay inset in a large stone tablet. The light from the chi and the crystal illuminated the stone. _Cloud_and_ghost_ were inscribed around the gem, the characters for _huen_, the higher soul. Blue and golden chi circled around the jewel like a vortex. A ribbon was wrapped around the gem, which she gripped with her hands.

_Fool_, she thought, _to bind your power to something not your own_. She grasped the crystal tightly, pain bleeding into her hands as she did, and the scream that rose from her mouth was soundless and silent in the refulgent pool. Pain tore through her fingertips and up her arms, buried under her skin. The bands of blue and gold wrapped around her, a pulsating, throbbing pain. She winced as needles traveled up her arms and pierced her gut. A thousand blades cut into her brain, but she held on.

The heart of the Water Dragon broke free of the stone chamber with a bright flash, and then the light all around her dimmed until only a deep pulsing from the crystal remained.

_No!_ Came the other voice, perhaps sensing defeat.

Blood smiled wickedly. "We are the same, you and I." she said, cradling the jewel. "I am you and you are I. And yes, oh _yes_, we are _divine_…" She raised her arms triumphantly as she called the power to her, draining it from the useless crystal to fuel herself. The water in the pool parted and a tempest gale rose around her feet, growing larger as it lifted her up, tearing petals from flowers with poetic grace, like a bouquet of destruction as she landed in the courtyard. Storm clouds gathered over the soft green hills, darkening the landscape.

The power thrummed in her temples and sang in her soul. In her hands, the slim blue ribbon tied around a crystal fluttered frantically in the wind.

**Footnotes:**

1) Rain and cloud games — an euphemism for sex. Rain sperm and cloud woman. In this context, Blood is very poetically suggesting that the gods do nothing but sit around and masturbate all day. In the case of lower spirit gods such as Tuzi the Three-Striped Rabbit or Chaihua, the patron goddess of nymphomaniacs and politicians, this is actually true.

* * *

1/5/2006 I know, I know. Poetry's the last desperate act of a writer scrabbling to find meaning. (Not to mention the ultimate move in writing pretentiousness.) Sorry, so soooorry!

But, well, carrying on… The Empress decided to finally make her presence known in this chapter, and demands that the records of the pathetic peons should be expanded to reflect the greatness of her luminous glory, including the work of such worthless writers as myself. Who am I, oh untalented scribbler of inanities, to question her divine judgment? Please excuse me while I rework the next set of pitiful chapters into an epic more deserving of her Immortal Influence.


	11. Part XI

* * *

**Part XI: Fates Entwined**

* * *

Sky stood below the first archway to Dirge and stared down at the wreck, annoyed that things could have gotten so far out of hand.

Pandemonium was consuming the camp. From the east some large creature had torn its way through the woods and was tearing down tents as Sky watched. From the mud fields to the south, the spirit army was pouring through spaces between the dark trees. The rebels were coming in from the west, leaving large explosions where the transport flyers had been in their wake. Soldiers and even Assassins were blundering around blindly, falling to the blades of rebels and spirits alike.

He crossed his arms resignedly over his chest. In the shadows lining the mountain path, the elite of the Guild waited with him.

"Shame about the camp," said the closest shadow, amicably, in a voice like liquid silk. "And the prisoner, too. I sacrificed some of my best men to bring him in. Pity all that work should just go to waste."

"If you're fishing for a reward, you should already know that you'll be amply compensated," Sky returned, "And this was not a complete loss. You've heard it said that, 'The world is like wind, in constant, fluid motion'? Adapting to change is the true asset of every labile thinker; consider the turn of events more of a _different_ opportunity."

"Oh, indeed, my lord. 'A man must learn to sail in all winds,' does he not? But I can't help wondering what becomes of the man who blindly follows the shifting of the currents. After all, the winds of heaven blows to Fortune's whim, and are not 'Man's schemes inferior to those of Heaven'?"

Sky gave a sharp laugh. "'The thinking man takes destiny into his own hands.' But of course, I'm not leaving anything to Fate. The enemy is expecting us to be in the campgrounds right now, amidst the chaos, and we're feigning disorder in order to entice him. As the Glorious Strategist himself once said, 'Attack your enemy where he is unprepared, and appear where you are not expected'…"

"How very fitting…" the shadow murmured.

"…and they are most certainly not expecting us to completely cut off our only path of return. Man can only plan within his limitations. Captain Sen," Sky called out, "are the explosives ready?"

"Yes, my lord."

"Excellent. Alert me when they are within fifteen paces of the base."

"Understood."

There was a thoughtful pause. Then, "Sire? I still think it would be wiser to retreat to a more tenable position."

"They will be here soon enough, Cao Zeng. Patience was still a virtue the last time I checked."

Sky couldn't hear the screams from this distance, but the fires and collapsing tents said plenty. The explosion that so thoroughly decimated the western end was now spreading towards the forest. Pieces of debris from the explosions fell into the barren trees and burned even in the rain. He allowed himself small consolation in the pillar of light that stood stark against the night. She wasn't going to be happy about the situation, but he was confident that things would be set to rights. He had lost Zu, who may well be dead by now, but circumstances had also granted him the opportunity to exchange the loss of one prisoner for another. She would understand. He smiled at her signature waves of red and purple that flew across the land and dispersed the green and ghastly blue shapes of the ghosts.

At the bottom of the hill, part of the rebel army was making its way up the path.

Cao Zeng cleared his throat politely, undeterred. "I was, uh, suggesting that we retreat for _your_safety, Sire," he said in his euphonious voice, "Although of course, I would happily stay behind to tie up any _loose ends_."

"I don't recall asking for your opinion."

"Just volunteering to kill every one of the rebels for you, lord."

"Kind of you to offer, but no."

"Thirty paces," interrupted the gruff voice of Sen. "Get to your position, boy." In the shadows, Sky thought he heard Cao Zeng sigh.

"Who's in the lead?"

"Min's got the old man, herself, and some rabble ahead of the main troops. Looks like we'll have company. Fifteen paces."

"Good girl," Cao Zeng murmured.

"Indeed. Captain, as soon as Kia Min and the Glorious Strategist are clear, I want you to drop this mountain on that army."

"With pleasure, my lord."

Unfolding his arms, Sky stretched and unsheathed his twin blades, twirling the metal experimentally. It had been some time since his last real fight. These days, all he ever seemed to have time for were brief sparring bouts in the Palace's training halls. It had been entirely too long since he was last in the field.

"Cao Zeng?" Sky said, offhand.

"Yes, m'lord?"

"Leave the old man to me. You may do whatever you wish with the rest."

"Oh, you are _most_ gracious, my lord."

"Yes," Sky smiled to himself, "so I've been told."

At Captain Sen's signal, red fires flashed along the mountains and lit the perimeter of the pass. More explosions rocketed into the night sky as the dragon casks caught fire and sent waves of mud flying. The whole of the mountain teetered for a moment as the earth shook itself painfully. Then, with the slow, dignified grace of a whale diving, the mountain began falling down.

* * *

_Hold, hold, hold ― NOW!_ Dawn Star jerked away from Lynn's descending blade at the last minute and turned to thrust the poisoned dagger into Lyn's groin, just above the pelvis. Dawn Star felt the hilt of the blade grow slick and hot with blood and Sweet Poison Lyn stopped smiling. With her remaining strength, Dawn shoved and drove the point deep into the other woman's gut. Lynn swayed a little, but stood firm. Trembling with the hazy effects of poison, Dawn Star looked up in surprise to see both ends of a spear sticking through Lynn's neck. The poisoner's eyes were bulging as her mouth worked without sound. Red blood bubbled around the spearhead and down her neck.

"Dawn Star! Are you alright?" Zu asked, appearing from behind the impaled poisoner. A piece of kailaan hung limply from his right shoulder pad, and his face was streaked with some dark pigment and he wore the robes and armor of a Lotus Executioner, but otherwise, he looked well. His silhouette was striking against the red column of light in the background.

"Zu?" Dawn Star asked, eyes wide, "I… I thought you were dead…" She tried to get up, but the poison in her system told her knees otherwise. "You haven't joined the enemy, have you?" She stared at his dark armor, but her head felt dizzy… she decided at that moment that maybe she wouldn't care if he was the Empress herself, just as long as he had some red silk grass poultice for her wound. Her left side still bled and she felt increasingly feverish. Maybe it was just the poison.

"Stay still," Zu commanded, as Assassins circled around. The ghosts had taken out a few of their numbers, but not enough. Zu drop the poisoner at his feet and braced his boots against Lyn's head while he pulled his spear out. He flexed his shoulders and brandished his weapon, pointing it menacingly as he placed himself between Dawn Star and the Assassins.

A flurried fight ensued, which Dawn Star vaguely followed. Zu's spear flared out like a fan before him, darting from one Assassin to another with a speed that made her head hurt. A couple of the Assassins tried to flank him while another distracted him in the front, but the spear whipped around as Zu twirled it behind his back, and she recognized the move as one she had once seen him teach Monshuiye. It was a variation on the third stance for Tien's Justice and very effective at distancing enemies that got too close. In this case, the move forced the two Assassins to retreat into Dawn Star's reach, and prying one of the two swords from Lyn's dead hands, she turned to stab the closer Assassin through a chink in the back of his armor. The sword caught in the metal and Dawn Star grimaced trying to recover it, but it was pulled from her weakened hands by the weight of the dying Assassin. The other Assassin turned her way when he heard his comrade cry out, and she struggled to get to her feet.

She wobbled as she got up, but immediately Zu was by her side, a blood-streaked spear in his hands, and a feral snarl on his mouth. He made short work of the Assassin before Dawn Star had even had time to blink, but Zu was just as quickly gone again to deal with the rest of the pack. A hovering globe of residual _po_ energy hung where the Assassin had fallen. Dawn Star reached out and pulled the chi towards her, placing her hand over her wounded side as she concentrated on healing. She felt a warmth flow into her body and as the wounded side knit itself into tender flesh, and she could also feel the bile of poison surging through her, forced out by the chi.

She saw the red fire bloom in the horizon through the corner of her eye as she bowed over the ground, vomiting ichor. The _krakathoom! Krakathoom!_ sounds of heavy explosions rocked the west.

"Dawn Star!" Zu cried, as he disemboweled the last Assassin and ran back. He bent to pick up something from the ground before rejoining her. She shook her head and waved him off, though she blanched with the effort, still weak.

"I… Give me a few moments… I'll be alright." She tried to smile reassuringly.

Zu offered his hand, which she gratefully accepted. She wrapped her arm around his neck in a half-embrace.

"Kia Min's idea?" He asked, looking west.

"Hui's, actually." She sniffed. "Is that soy sauce?" she asked, eyebrows raised.

"Long story," he said, handing her Guijin's Favor, the sword she dropped earlier. She sheathed it at her waist.

"Let's go, we should use the distraction to get past the camp."

"I'm not going." Dawn Star said, glancing past him to the pillar of light before coming back to his face. The shadows made his expression hard to read. "I… There's no easy way to say this, Zu, and you'll think I'm crazy, but I'm going to face her, so please don't argue with me and just let me go. I have to do this. I might not be able to run right now," she said, gesturing to her side, "but I think I can still buy my father and Kia Min some time."

"Fine. I won't argue with you." Zu said, face grim. "The answer's 'No' anyway." And with that, he scooped her over his shoulder against her protests and set off on a dead run for Dirge.

* * *

Mud slid down the mountainside like melting wax: deceptively slow and distant, and in the next instant, a behemoth over the path. The onrush of its force was like the bursting of pent-up waters into a chasm a thousand fathoms deep. The rebels screamed and ran, but they were too slow and too late. The sludge poured down indiscriminately, swallowing fighters and passage both, effectively blocking retreat.

Roughly fifteen paces ahead of the ambush, a shocked horror swept through the surviving band of a dozen rebel warriors.

"What have you done?" Sun Li asked in a hoarse whisper, his eyes sweeping across the carnage to focus on Kia Min alone.

"Captain Min, what's going― ?" one of the younger warriors began, but his words were cut short by the gurgle of blood in his lungs. A large blade protruded from his chest and glinted malevolently in the dim light of lanterns.

Then the shadows descended, black and violent.

Li threw off his cloak and unsheathed Fortune's Favorite, moving to intercept Kia Min before she backed into the darkness. By the glow of half-shuttered lights, roughly two dozen unknown figures spilled onto the path. A large warrior leapt and intercepted the gap between Li and Kia Min, bearing down on the old man with the momentum of a hurtling boulder. Li feinted with his sheath and brought the edge of his sword spinning up, carving through the fighter's exposed abdomen and scoring flesh. A surprised "O" formed on the fighter's mouth as Li tore the blade through the warrior, nearly cutting the man in half. Not waiting to see his opponent fell, Li quickly turned and swung his sword, projecting a wave of powerful chi that sent the closest combatants flying. All around him, the rebel soldiers scrambled to fend off the shadowy attackers, and rallied to defend the Glorious Strategist.

The sound of metal scraping metal caught Li's attention, and he turned to see one of his soldiers go down under a flight of daggers. Further up, Li recognized the man in black robes lined with silver dragons who stood with twin blades crossed at his chest. Beside him, a younger man in bright purple robes and a blue cap grinned down as more daggers appeared in his extended hands.

The foppish man in the colorful robes began to sing, a strange, uncivilized song which his mellifluous tones carried past the sounds of swords and spears. His unfamiliar tongue accompanied the daggers that wove a pattern in the air about Li, and the melody was hypnotic and somnolent, lulling to the senses. Li forced himself to focus and shake off the effects, but fighters were already collapsing all around him as flying metal found soft flesh in the hearts and throats of his soldiers.

Li hurled the sword sheath at the singer, aiming for the man's exposed neck, but the projectile was deftly countered by the blades of the man in black. With near super-human speed, he cut the scabbard in two and advanced on Li. The old man raised his own blade to meet the challenge.

Metal met metal with a shrill, hard sound, and the clash of swords sent sparks flying between them. Sky matched Sun Li's attacks blow for blow and focus for and focus; but the younger man had the advantage of his youth and speed, dodging around Sun Li's slower thrusts and answering them with twists of the edge that dove under Li's defenses and raked across his arms and sides. Realizing his disadvantage, Sun Li abandoned melee combat and moved swiftly to ranged attacks, summoning a fire spell in his hands as he retreated from Sky's blades. Sky followed, not allowing his opponent even a moment's leeway, and slammed both blades down on Fortune's Favorite's and deftly spun the weapon into the air. Fire raced through the mill of combatants, singing the space where Sky had stood, but in one fluid motion he leapt and cleared the space where the Dire Flame shot out, and landed in a crouch behind Sun Li. A Legendary Strike to the small of the old man's back finished the job, sending Li sprawling breathless into the mud.

Once Li fell, the rest of the rebel soldiers were quick to dispatch. Only Kia Min remained standing. Flint was struck and a light in a glass globe was lifted into the air. The bright, fuelless fire glinted off the wet helmets of Sen's Imperial Soldiers who filed down the pass to surround the fighters, a heavily-armed troop of roughly thirty warriors. The elite of the Guild stood nonchalantly amidst the carnage them, studiously ignorant of the mangled bodies at their feet. Cao Zeng grinned broadly at the face of Kia Min. Two of the Guild came forward and took hold of Sun Li's arms, pulling him up.

"I had no choice, Master Li," Kia Min murmured, "It's for the good of the Empire."

"Fool girl," the old man said bitterly, "You know_ nothing_ of the good of the Empire. You have doomed us all."

"No, they _will_ make things better, you will see! No more famine, no more drought, no more death, and no more loss, Master Li! I wouldn't expect you to understand. But she's going to bring them all back, all the ones we've lost. And she _can_. I believe it. Just you see — Monshuiye is going to make good on her promise." The woman's hand on her weapon trembled slightly. "I know she will."

"No famine and no drought? No death and no loss? No rebirth and no beginnings, Kia Min! Do you even understand what you've traded away?" Kia Min's jaw set tightly.

"Shut up, old man," growled Captain Sen, striking Li across the temple with the hilt of his sword. The old man staggered. Kia Min's spear was at Sen's throat in an instant, but Cao Zeng stepped in, his hand a warning against her neck.

"Don't touch him, again, _dog_," the warrior growled, but she slowly lowered her weapon.

"Captain Sen, I understand your devotion to your job, but I suggest that you carefully refrain from manhandling _my_ prisoners," Sky reprimanded in a quiet voice.

"I… Ah, if course, my lord. Please forgive my insolence."

"Personally, I'd give him thirty lashings if he were one of mine," Cao Zeng whispered into Kia Min's ear.

"Don't bother me with your irreverence, Cao Zeng."

"Touché, dear Captain Min, you wound me. I was merely trying to offer my sympathies."

"Quiet," Sky commanded. "Captain Sen, you and your soldiers will escort the venerable Master Li to Dirge." He turned to Li. "We have been so looking forward to this reunion," Sky confided as he drew close. "She's always thought of you as a father, you know."

Blood trickled down Sun Li's brow and mud marred his pale face, but the Glorious Strategist's eyes were as hard and dark as obsidian. He drew himself up with imperial dignity. "Don't subject me to your farcical displays, _imposter_."

Sky's hand flew to his heart in mock indignance, but the smile that curled around his handsome mouth melted no ice in his eyes. "Oh, how could I not honor such a venerable master's request? Very well, I will dispense with the pleasantries. Just business," Sky said, and in a movement almost too fast to see, he struck and sent Sun Li reeling three paces backwards with a Paralyzing Palm blow. The old man landed on the ground, frozen, though his eyes still betrayed the angry fire within.

Sky's smile was like ice as he leaned down, speaking softly, "We will simply take what we want," he said as he carefully cut the strap around Sun Li's neck and held up the Dragon Amulet, "and leave you powerless to stop us." Sky tucked the necklace into the sleeve-pocket of his robe. Then, he flipped the blade and lowered it delicately into Sun Li's body, methodically severing the muscles and tendons in his arms and legs (1). The old man's eyes widened, but the Paralyzing Palm denied him even the power to wince in pain.

"What are you doing?!" cried Kia Min, but Cao Zeng's hand still on her neck prevented her from rushing forward.

"There will be very little bleeding," Sky assured her, "and Doctor Wen Zhi is a very competent physician, albeit somewhat unconventional (2). I will ensure that your Master receives the very best medical treatment the Court has to offer. I've merely ensured that his 'paralysis' will remain a little more… permanent." He nodded to Sen to take the old man away. "Rest easy, Captain. It will be nothing for the Empress to restore him to full health once his purpose in the ritual is fulfilled. We just need to ensure that he will cooperate with us until that time, and that means eliminating any future risks to the effort."

Kia Min nodded, though her expression was still dark.

"Cao Zeng," Sky gestured, "if you would?"

Kia Min's eyes widened. "What- ?" she began, but Cao Zeng's hands closing around her neck cut off the words. A nerve pinch to the neck deftly dropped her to the ground.

"Don't take too long," Sky warned.

Cao Zeng bowed and ran his tongue over his blade with a flourish.

Sky waved a dismissal before turning to join the procession into the mountains. It was still a good five hours' to journey to the Temple, and there were many preparations to be made before Li was ready for the sacrifice.

**Footnotes:**

1) A technique called_duan jing_, meaning "broken spirit," wherein a practitioner severs the muscles and joints necessary for a fighter to practice the martial arts, thereby rendering the subject a cripple, or worse, a vegetable. Skilled practitioners, however, have been known to perform this technique with such precision that normal body functions are completely preserved even as the subject's _chi_ essence is so irreparably disrupted that he or she becomes deprived of not only the ability to perform martial arts, but also the ability to ever learn it again. It is rumored that especially powerful martial artists can perform _duan jing_ on their opponents without the use of weapons.

It must be speculated that the Lord Sky's understanding of the procedure is superficial at best, and most likely a technique he picked up during his study of the human anatomy under duress. The assurances he gave Kia Min, however, are most likely honest, insomuch that the Empress has indeed been known to restore the health and functions of men from the very brink of the grave itself. Mad Doctor Wen's abilities are also known far and wide in the Jade Empire for his unconventional, but very effective methods (see below).

2) Doctor Wen Zhi, otherwise known as "Mad Wen," is the first Jade Empire physician known to have successfully transplanted an organ to a living host. A man devoted to only two things in his life: his work and his daughter, it is of little wonder how he wound up in the service of his present employer…

* * *

1/15/06 Took a break and wrote a KotOR short story this past week (shameless plug!), which is why this update's a little late. Considering that "A Dream of Blood and Snow" started out as my (brief) explanation for why the PC has to fight _three_ versions of him/herself at the end of Dirge… this is just out of hand. I gotta remember that we're supposed to get to Dirge. _Gotta get to Dirge…__get to Dirge… gotta get to Dirge…_ :::(mumbles and trails off)::: 


	12. Part XII

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**Part XII: Descent**

* * *

_No!_ Snow resisted, fighting the temptation, to unleash the power in her into the land and wash the world in fire and light. 

_We are the same, you and I. I am you and you are I.__And yes, oh yes, we are divine…_

_Of course we are._ Snow flexed her hands. Such power danced at her fingertips.

_There's nothing else in the world we'd rather be._

_Except_you_. You, I would never want to be…_

Dreaming Snow fell.

The world receded into darkness. Thick and wet as marshland, the gaping emptiness sucked her steadily downward, pulling her through air heavy as mud, swallowing thoughts and fears and guilt without a sound, promising to conceal even the cruelest secrets where no one would ever find them. The emptiness raced past as she flailed for handholds, finding nothing. Screaming words fled her lips and escaped nowhere, retreating back down her throat, becoming a leaden lump so firmly lodged she couldn't breathe, couldn't think. Heat crawled up her lungs and through her mind, scalding, blistering hot, until the rippling of the world was filled with only black.

When she awoke, the side of her face was pressed flat to the ground. She breathed, very slowly, out of habit.

The surface of the floor was sleek like the wet-coolness of level glass or polished marble. It sapped the warmth from her with a slow, insistent pull; a gentle sensation that felt like sinking into water, into nothing.

_How far did I fall…_ she wondered, disoriented, thick. Reality was constricting; a single instant, a still breathe, the moment held before release.

_I could have ducked…_ she thought,_ Why didn't I duck?_

Love._ Because I love him. _Clarity fell like silver rain: _I don't want to fight him. I would rather face death myself than bring harm to Master Li_._He's the only father this orphan has ever known... How could I raise my hand against my own father? That would have been an affront against Heaven._

No, wait. There was something else, too. She hadn't fallen to Li this time. She…

But her thoughts were pulled back, anchored to the ache in her heart. Not stopping Li was an affront to Heaven, too. Filial duty vied with her duty as a Spirit Monk; the duty of a servant of the Goddess rivaling the deep roots of a child's duty to her parent.

_No matter what Abbot Song says, no matter what Sun Li may have done in his past, and no matter who he has become, or still is, or will be… I…I _can't_ hate him. He and his brothers burned Dirge to the ground, but I don't want to fight Master Li… I don't think I could bring myself to… to… I'm sorry, Dawn Star, Lian, Sky… _She closed her eyes. _I failed you… _

The gentle pull of the cold was a soft invitation to melt into the darkness. _Don't breathe, don't speak…_

_It'll be easier this way, easier if I'm the one who dies… no need for revenge, no need for death, no need to repay blood for blood… _

Her mind drifted. Snippets of her life circled like lazy swallows in the gyre, memories soft and subdued; Master Li's face smiling down at her, his features warm and worn as she remembered.

"_Why are you crying, my pupil?"_

_Sniffle, sniffle. "M-master Li, I, ahnn, I, ahhn, I fell…"_

"_Yes, I can see that. And why are you still there?"_

"_Because it huuurts, Master Li. What if I fall down again?"_

"_Not all falls are bad, little one; sometimes, small pains are a part of learning wisdom."_

_She shook her head, hands covering her eyes. "I don't understand, Master Li. I didn't learn anything."_

"_Why do we fall, child, do you know?"_

_She shook her head again, small pigtails rubbing against her shoulders._

"_So that we might better learn to pick ourselves up."_

She paused.

"_Get up, my student."_

_But I hurt, Master Li._

"_And so you always will, if all you ever learn to do is fall."_

_You taught me better than that._

Snow opened her eyes.

_It can't end like this. _

Perhaps Master Li could still be dissuaded from his path. Perhaps she could remind him of the man that he once was: surely the guise that he had put on in Two Rivers couldn't be all false, all act. Perhaps the knowledge that his family still lived would reawaken his heart; if she could just open his eyes to the evil of his actions. But if not… then… she still had a duty to a goddess to fulfill…

_Forgive me, father. _

Arms numb and unbending, she pulled herself from the cold ground and drew up frozen legs. Her mouth was filled wish ashes, bitter, hot, and dry. She rose and stood, trembling, stubbornly refusing to fall.

_I want to live. _

Her hands shook as she groped through the darkness and found uneven wall looming all around, a towering cliff, solid and unyielding. She dug stiff fingers deep into the crevices, and one hand moving over an arm, fingers grasping, _clench_, connecting and straining, pulling, pulling, _pull_ — she began to slowly make her way back — climbing inch by inch up the only direction she could go, legs jerking up and hooking into holes, digging in her toes, the cold wind turning against her back. Twice, she slipped, and the hungry breathe returned, a centrifugal motion that threatened to pull her loose and dashed her to the floor, phantasmal fingers clawing at her exposed sides as whispers broke the silent darkness. She jabbed fingers harder into the handholds, rammed them deep into the niches until rough grain bit the ragged hands, left stinging trails, and clung tightly to the cracks, grateful for the sensation of pain, and the permanence of the wall.

Slow but gradual, each jerking reiteration of her movement merged into the next. She didn't know how much time passed; it was boundless and infinitesimal, curved and bent, inconstant, like a reflection in a pool of rippling water. More than once the darkness nearly broke her, despair thick and suety, a smoke that both suffocated and blinded.

Her hand reached up again, gripped, and slid back. Her other arm clung tightly to a thin handhold, barely holding. She reached up again and found nothing to cling to. _Don't panic. Don't panic!_ She thought to herself, but her energy was already flagging and the grip of her right hand loosened, weak. _No_._No!_ She reached up desperately once last time, and nearly fell with relief as she realized that _there was nothing else to cling to_. She had reached the edge.

With a groan of relief and one last pull — a scramble of feet against the last rough foothold as the wind tried to pull her back — she finally heaved herself over the gray floor, and lay there, relieved and drained, letting the long still moments drape over her.

The wind stopped. The sounds of whispering ceased. Her spirit felt heavy, but she only allowed herself enough time to gather her resolution before pushing upward again, holding one hand steady against the wall as she stood on shaky, but determined feet. She turned to look back only once. Where _it_ had been, where the ground collapsed swallowed her and she had crawled up by the bones of her fingers through the darkness of despair, there was only smooth, unblemished gray floor. _It wasn't real_._It_ is_ all in my mind. _But she had no doubt that if she had let go, had given in, had wavered at any point — then the consequences would have been as dire and real as any physical death. _I need to find out what I'm fighting._ Pieces of the puzzle were starting to fit, but she still didn't know what she faced. She was very lucky to have survived this round: there would be no miracles for a second.

* * *

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	13. Part XIII

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**Part XIII: The Darkness Within  
**

* * *

The pearly walls were unmarked and level, lit by a dim ambient light that soothed her soul, the unadorned order a comfort after so much time spent in the chaos of mud and rain. Memories flitted to the surface as her hands brushed past, recollections like blushes of color playing out on smooth walls. She could feel the lines of chi energy woven all around her, but the birthright that had always been accessible to her was now very faint, filtered, like the weak trickles of thin summer streams.

She traveled through the corridors with a growing certainty: she hadbeen down this way before. Though no stranger to her personal inner landscapes, she could find no door, no outlet, no place for her to go. The Forest Shadow had once tried to trap her in her own mind, but that had been a simple block to break. This… this was different. It was as if she fought with her own mind as an enemy.

She focused instead on the thoughts and worries that had been gnawing at her ever since she arrived; the disparate images flowing like half-remembered dreams, visions that seemed to make the walls shimmer as they spilled into her consciousness. She went through a list of all that she remembered, seeking clues for what had happened, and what might be to come.

She had defeated the God-Emperor, Sun Hai, but was betrayed by Master Li. A coup twenty years in the making. Master Li's final move capitalized on her trust and her training to succeed: the love of a child for her father, student for master, and a flaw in her technique that she had never known could be exploited. But the Water Dragon had promised rebirth, a chance to redeem herself and save the ones she loved. Had she agreed? She was… reluctant, tired. How long had she traveled through the Spirit Realm? It seemed like weeks… no, she couldn't tell, it was all so long ago. The strings of Destiny that bound her to fate had always pulled her in whatever direction the gods willed her to go. There was very little choice, either by duty or by fate: she went as she was needed. She did not asked anyone but herself what would happen when all this was done.

More memories came to mind as she walked, distant shadows that gained in color and vivacity as her presence tugged them into consciousness. What was it that Abbot Song had said? That the Sun Dynasty's attack against had corrupted the Water Dragon's physical form, desecrated her sanctuary, and tainted the fountains of Dirge. The adulteration of the Goddess's form weakened and made her power palatable for men. But this allowed the dark spirits of the world and the nether creatures beyond it to inhabit the once-holy land as well.

Trapped between the borders of life and death, in the one place that existed on all planes of existence… how many demons had she fought to restore the fountains of Dirge, through ghost-armies of Spirit Monks and Imperial soldiers alike? And there was something more, on the edge of perceptions, an even darker presence than the stray ghosts that populated the landscape. What had it called itself, that entity beneath the caves?

Snow frowned. Memories that were not hers were also surfacing, clouding her thoughts. A vision of herself, standing in a hall of magnificent light surrounded by Heavenly Gate Guardians, great spirits, and colorful gods. Some flinched as she gestured angrily and looked on each other with uncertainty. Next: Sky's arms flexed as he drew up the oars, laughing by her side as the two of them, dressed in simple brown robes, traveled down a wide, flat river. Then the heat of blood running down her hands, slick and hot, as Lian's pale face watched from the other end of the spear — where did she get a spear? — anger dimming quickly in the princess's dying eyes, but also a great sadness, of loss and darkness, overtaking all. Lian's betrayal stung deep. And now the Lotus Assassins' blades bite deep, deep, deep down into her bone, into fire in her veins, and she screamed and screamed and screamed until no one ever came, no one would ever come, they had left her to die and even the gods and_screaming and__screamingandscreamingaloneuntil_—

She jerked away, and dropped against the opposite wall. The faint shadow of red welts bloomed for a moment over her skin. _Blood?_ She touched her side, her hands finding only the reality of her undamaged skin, _What was that?!_ She looked from the wall to her torso, apprehensive. There was still more she needed to know.

Tentatively, she let the hand reconnect with the doorway, opening herself to the flood…

…_and regained consciousness in a darkness so deep and complete that it could not be described by mere words. It was the shadow that lurked behind each light, the terror of the child's nightmare, and the depths of a grown man's fears. Darkness beyond death, beyond hope, a despair that called itself Suffering, and It offered her Its hand in supplication…_

"_Death has come to you," said the voice, and an echo of deep caverns followed in its wake, "But life can be regained. Your friends have betrayed you, as has your master as he once betrayed his brothers. Yes, you see it all so clearly now, don't you? She, too, has used you. You are nothing but the Dragon's pawn, a means to enforce the unjust rule of the gods. Despite your efforts, the drought continues; it is the Goddess's recompense for offenses committed long ago. But all is not lost. I can restore what has been lost. Your life can be returned, the Empire redeemed, and the cycles that set us all on the path to futile rebirth can be ended. I will guide you to through the madness to the freedom. I will give you the power to change the world. _You_ will wield the Goddess's power over life and death, and for this help, I only require a token price…_

… _I will make you the same offer I made her."_

She lifted her hand away as the shadow beneath her fingers twisted and poured from the gray wall, rising in the shape of her own silhouette. "_Power. Freedom. Immortality," the_ smoky voice said, the quiet sound echoing through the ashen hallway. The shadow coiled and uncoiled, its body twisting and reforming like smoke though the outline never changed. "_And for this help, all we require is a single little ritual to free us…"_

"Who — _no_—_what_ are you?"

"_We are Entropy, Chaos, and Darkness. We make gods quiver in our presence, and we are but a shadow servant for our master." _It murmured.

_A spirit? _Snow raised her eyebrows.

"_We are an emissary of my Lord, sent here to make you an offer._"

She cocked her head, appearing to consider its words. "What makes you think I'd agree?"

Shades of darkness moved across the shadow's face, opening a hole where its mouth would be. "O_ther than restoring the Empire, gaining immortality, and an infinite supply of cosmic power?__There is always the incidental benefit that we know how to free you from this bond. You are not in your own world, are you not?"_

"And you will tell me what you know, no doubt, if I agree to 'help' free you? What guarantee do I have that you will keep your end of the bargain? Why should I even trust you?"

"_Because you will trust me, or you will die. It does not matter to me which of you survives, but there is too much at risk to allow you both to live. You will serve because it suits you. We ask you because it suits us._"

_Was that a threat or a prediction?_ There was something more to this spirit than its shifting words. She could not help but feel that it was strongly familiar, just beyond her grasp of memory. _Who are you? Really?_

Out loud, she asked, "Who is this 'other'? What do you know about the bond?"

"_Ah,_ y_ou are persistent, are you not? Yesss. You fight our despair at every step, and yet you prevail. Perhaps we have underestimated you_.

_But it does not matter. Agree and we may answer more of your questions. Do not, and you will die, your soul will be extinguished. It cannot be allowed to have the both of you. There is much too great a risk of one trying to stop the other in some misguided attempt at redemption._"

Snow pursed her lips, her eyes slitted and calculating. "You think threats will make me want to help you?"

"_Hsss_." The shadows within the silhouette moved and shifted unpleasantly. "_No. We have seen where threats will go. We have suffered, and thus we know. We do not make threats." _Its voice dropped mournfully,_ "How we have suffered at the hands of gods and demons and men; shunned, abused, starved, and forgotten — we have long memories, we do not forget. Do you think we have forgotten? We live with more sorrow than you can ever hope to learn in ten lifetimes on the Wheel of Transmigration, mere mortal words cannot suffice. We have known better than any the gods' caprice and lies and deceits, beneath their reign long have we been taught subjugation, enslavement, and debasement. We are subject to their whimsy and their will, rewarded when it is convenient, forgotten when we are not; we have been used, broken, discarded, we understand the pain of betrayal as only ones betrayed often do. In this we have known, like none other the truth of the world, the truth of the gods, the Wheel and its Stewardess, the truth of fate and destiny, and the Heavenly Emperor, the truth of—"_

"Suffering." Snow finished, her voice soft and low. She bowed her head. "Yes, I recognize you now."

"_We do not make threats_," it said again, voice now simpering, a whine. "_We make promises. We seek you to find your Other because we have not been able to uncover where she is hidden."_

"And you are so sure that I know? That I have a key or a map or something?"

"_A key? Ah, yesss. Yesss. You must know, because she does._"

Snow considered, her arms and palms flat against the wall behind her, pushing forward and back in a rhythmic restlessness. If the creature thought she knew where her other self was, then there was a good chance she did. _But why?_ She thought about Dirge, and the Temple there. She thought about the caves, and the stench of darkness in its depths. She thought about the Water Dragon, and the flat plains with silver rain where she had first awoken after she had died. And then she thought about Zu, who was now alive, and the woman he had told her she would become. What had that had meant to the Empire? And to Sky.

Defiantly, she shook her head, "Sorry, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"_Hsss_!"It chided, throwing out dark limbs that became long tendrils that wormed on the ground. Its voice rose, became a shriek, "_You should not have! You will regret this!" _

Snow merely shrugged and struck, the lifting of her shoulder merging into the motion of her fists slamming into the side of the shadow as her hand tore through its body, like gauze, and opening a gap where its abdomen should be. But the shadow simply melted right back together, unfazed, the moving darkness shifting and coalescing. _Fu – fu - fu – fu_ – it seemed to laugh, halting and strange: _"You should have bargained._"

"I might have–" she grunted, striking again, swiping at the head. Her fist passed through the neck of the shadow, severing it, but the creature merely shrugged, extended tendrils between the two halves of its head, and the parts were reconnected, "–if you were actually looking to bargain. What did she trade you, demon, for her life? Her soul? The Empire? The Water Dragon? How is she evading your grasp?"

"_Hsss!_" The creature's body began to expand, widening and filling the corridor. The silhouette changed, becoming larger, bulkier, thick with horns on its head, and bowed legs like an animal's. From its back extended a pointed tail in the shape of a spade and large black arms came sweeping down towards her. She blocked, both hand raised, and staggered against the weight, forced to duck and leap away from the beast as the black fists came crashing down.

_Fu – fu - fu – fu_– it intoned, "_We had wanted you to find her first. Now, your death will just take longer._"

"If I only had a silver for every time someone said that…"

The fists rose and slammed against each side of the corridor, the fingers elongating and changing once more into a smoky cage that extended from wall to wall and ceiling to floor. Snow kicked at the dark threads, but they merged back together as if she had done nothing, too fast for her to break through. Her right hand rose again to strike at the head directly, but a limb snaked forward, and dark, whip-like tendrils caught her right arm, then her left, and slammed her against the wall.

Fire and needles running up her back, Snow groaned. She tried violently to jerk away and was rewarded with another thump against the wall. It pulled her into the air and tossed her against the wall, toying with her like a cat with its prey, then pulling her up onto her feet once more.

"You'll… have… to do… better… than… that… _spirit_," she coughed, a trickle of bright red spilling out the side of her mouth.

The shadow seemed to smirk, _Fu – fu - fu – fu_, and tugged on her arms again. This time, Snow was prepared. She crouched as the shadow brought her up, resisting, but at the last moment leapt using both the momentum of her legs and the pull of its limbs. She kicked. A dark arm lashed out to grab her leg, but she turned mid-air and spun, twisting the creature's arm as she came down, pinning the limb between her feet, bringing it hard and crashing to the floor. The shadow shrieked and snatched back its arm, letting loose her hands in its surprise.

"I would have thought… the minion of Suffering… to be stronger," she sneered through bloodied teeth.

"_I am not like the weak spirits that you have fought; without purpose or control._"

"So… you admit… you _are_ a spirit, then."

The face of the shadow opened as if to laugh, but the "o" in the center of its face became an expression of surprise, then pain, as Snow threw herself forward and up into the creature, blades of blue ice between her palms, cutting into the shadow as her hand descended into the heart of the darkness, sinking up to her elbow, connecting with something loose and slippery as she led loose her Ice Shard and _clenched_, pulling down, tearing out the spirit's essence as if to bind it to her.

"_No!_" the shadow gasped, a quiet, desperate whisper, and quivered as it began to collapse upon itself, shadowy limbs shriveling, weak without its core. "_No! You couldn't have known—!"_

"I've seen to the destruction at Dirge," She gripped the heart of the creature tighter, red energy crackling around her fingers as she drained its essence, "I've seen what you 'master' can do. I don't intend for either your master or my double to win," she growled, leaning down, red light like fire, fierce in her eyes, "But you won't live to see it."

The shadow managed one last whimper which echoed softly in the hall as it dwindled away to nothing. Snow slumped heavily against the smooth gray walls, spent, and wondered if this was all what she would one day become. A woman who lived with Suffering, yet felt nothing at all inside. The corridor beneath her body felt cold and hard.

_One down_, she thought, wiping the blood from her face with a hand_, Just one more now to go_.

* * *

4/23/06 Yay, update! Given how long it's been since the last one, you can guess at how hard it's been for me to write this chapter. This was actually posted up on my personal forum for awhile (linkable through my User Name), but I've polished it up and added some more dialogue/description to fit into the "real" story. You should also check out the Freesourceful Forum for background notes on this fic!

Oh, and more self pimpage: we're running a Jade Empire One Week Fanfic Challenge right now and I wrote a Black Whirlwind ficlet for that. Check the fic out and take a look at the JE Challenge on the boards.


	14. Part XIV

* * *

**Part XIV: Blood**

* * *

The armored figure stood on the Temple steps, as still as the silence of death, unmoving before a faded red archway the color of rust, or ancient blood.

Here, the Water Dragon's divine essence once rested. Here, the Spirit Monks had worshipped and protected her mortal form, risen with the morning sun in praise of her glory, carried out her blessings to those in need, and offered up their own bodies to serve as hosts for the lost spirits of the land, guiding tormented souls to the comfort and solace of her grace.

All around the winds sang an ugly mourning song, rising in shrieks and saw-edged voices to cut across the mountains, carried high by their relentless flight through the icy air and down again into the cold and powdery depths of gorges covered by new fallen snow, deceptive crags thin-coated by a hairsbreadth of sheet-ice, and then rising again as echoes across the Land of the Howling Spirits, the dirge song of the restless dead. In the distance, the sky moved. Clouds convened and glowered, lightning arched like eyebrows between them. Rain fell against the earth as if to beat it into submission. Energy crackled in the air and everything spoke of transformation.

But the figure was patient. He had waited this long. He was not deterred by the prospect of waiting a little while longer for his "master" to return.

* * *

Zu carried a struggling Dawn Star through a firestorm that set the Assassins' camp in flames. Fleeing the source, Zu ran toward the mountains, toward Dirge. An explosion behind them hurled the two towards the tattered remnants of canvas and splintered poles. More Dire Flame spells, red and unnatural-violet colored flames, flew past. Ghosts caught in the spell path were instantly dispelled, while baffled soldiers, fleeing their Empress's wrath, screamed as their bodies burned to a blackish, oozing crisp, the smell of grease and blistered flesh adding to the heaviness in the air. The explosion liberated Dawn Star, who hit the ground with her shoulder first and rolled onto her back, then heels, and in one swift motion rose onto her feet sparing only a brief backward glance for Zu before running off.

"Dawn Star!" Zu batted at the debris around him only to find her proud burgundy cloak streaming away in the direction of the firestorm. "No!" He winced and tried to move, but found it impossible to shift the large wooden post over his left leg, groaning in tune to the chorus of pain that went up his leg.

Unrelenting, Zu kicked at the log, but a loud roar from the northeast attracted his attention and he turned to see tents and men flying in his direction, the soldiers who could still stand running nearly horizontal past Zu. Those soldiers that were tossed his way, however, landed with a sickening _krtsshkt!_ and moved not at all. He couldn't see what was approaching from his fixed angle on the ground, but grabbing the nearest weapon ― a broken-edged rock ― Sagacious Zu prepared to defend against whatever fate was sending his way.

"You fight like mice in little tin helmets!" grated a voice that was boulders falling from cliff sides, "I've fought rats with bigger teeth than you!"

The yelling was accompanied by addition cries of pain and terror, yells of, "Give me a good fight, you dogs, come back here!" and a quivering voice that sounded like shards of glass scraping against iron.

"Get out of the way! Get out of the way! _Just get out of his way if you don't want to get hurt_! He's very drunk right now!"

"I'm not drunk!" protested the rockslide, followed by several grunts of effort and another rain of men crashing to the ground, "If I was drunk, there'd be more arms and legs flying around. And more heads, too. I've only had half a cask. Look! Some of those part are still even moving!"

"_Aiiieeeee!"_ screamed another misfortunate as he ran by Zu, cradling only the spurting stump of a right arm.

"This wasn't what I meant when I said 'give me a hand'!"

"Haha!" Cawed the Black Whirlwind before stopping to lope the head off another soldier. "Oho!" he exclaimed, spotting Zu on the ground, "Here's another live one!"

"NO! DON'T KILL THAT ONE!!" screeched Zin Bu.

"But it's got the right kind of armor! And those Lotus Assassins all look the same, anyway. What makes this one—"

"That's not a Lotus Assassin!"

"But it—"

"Look, over there, Whirlwind, more wine! Go, go!"

There was a brief pause filled only by the thudding of feet running past.

_Terrific_, Zu thought, _It's the Malodorous Oaf and the Cowardly Estimator_.

"That's_ The Black_ Whirlwind!" Came the growl, "And I'm_ bloodthirsty_, beancounter, not stupid. All the wine is back in the cooking tent where we came from." Whirlwind walked forward to prod the log pinning Zu to the ground, eliciting a feral grimace from the prostrate man. "It looks like it wouldn't put up much of a fight anyway."

"Thank you!" Zi Bu sighed, exasperated. The Magic Abacus turned to look at Zu. Everything about him looked soggy and wilted. Even the little god's mustaches were drooping. "I'm so very sorry about that, I… I'm afraid I have the grave misfortune of introducing you to my newly-appointed office as guide to the Celestial Bureaucracy's new Guardian, The Black Whirlwind, Destroyer of Men, and Slayer of Demons."

"Trust me," Zu said, "The misfortune is mine."

"Snow, Snow, stop! … Stop!" Dawn Star gasped as she cleared a tent and entered the blackened clearing where an oval-eyed woman in sapphire robes stood with her long hair falling unbound. "You don't need to do this!"

The Empress's lips moved together into a thin curve of recognition. She arched an eyebrow, "Dawn Star."

The girl's burgundy war robes were torn and muddied. Her hair blew in matted strips across her forehead, an expression of pain and tread-worn worry was painted across her face. Blood thought the ragged appearance was amusing if rather undignified, but her humor was soured when this brought to mind her own bedraggled appearance.

"It has been years since anyone dared call me… by that name."

Dawn Star was undeterred. "Zu said that you were… yourself again. I thought… I guess I just had to see."

Blood's lips curled further upward, but her voice was guarded. "Oh? I hadn't realized that I had ever _stopped_being myself." The red lips moved apart, exposing white teeth, "Tell me, Dawn Star, do you still believe in Destiny? That all people are bound to each other and their lots in life by_ yuan_, the threads that connects each of us to the other in our past and present lives, the red nets of Fate that tie our souls inextricably to the souls of all whom we are destined to meet, have ever met, and will ever impact, or feel the impact of their existence."

"Snow…" Dawn Star blinked, confused. Her friend's form was shifting, doubling. One moment she saw the blue-robed woman in the clearing, and in the next instant it was the same person, but now dressed in brown and yellow, like the robes of father Li's students in Two Rivers. Snow held out her arms to Dawn Star, her face anxious and pleading. Dawn Star blinked again and the vision was gone.

"That person is dead!" Blood fumed, her lips curling into a sneer. "_Fate_ had decreed it! The gods let me _die_, did you know? And that's their justice, their _truth_. After all that I had done… every good deed… _how_…_could_…_they?"_ The bitter words were spat like poison, and the eyes, so large and oval, became slits lit by red chi flowing around her, "I've found my true self, Dawn Star, I'll no longer be a pawn of the Celestial Bureaucracy. Destiny doesn't know what it's doing, but _I_ will redeem the Jade Empire — as Its savior, deity, and queen. Once I take on the Mantle of Heaven—"

"Snow, you can't! The Ritual of Assumption—"

"—will free us _all_." The Empress's face was smug. "In time, I think you'll come to appreciate my plans." She paused to send a shower of ice blades hurling towards a new wave of angry spirits. Power surged from her arms in red and purple, pulsing waves.

"Join me."

"What?"

The red eyes pierced through her. "Give me your power. You've lived your whole life with this curse, Dawn Star, why not make use of it? They've always held you back. Don't you see? They've been _using_ us, all along, everyone. Your father, Sun Hai, me, and you: everyone from the Emperor down to the lowliest peasant. None of us _could_ escape the Celestial Bureaucracy's inevitable path. Despair. Death. And Suffering." She said the last with a lingering drawl, as if reluctant to speak or part with it, "The 'lot' of human existence. But all that is about to change. Just give to me your power."

Faintly, like an echo, she heard the same voice plead: _Dawn Star, lend me your strength!_

"I…"

"Dawn Star, have I ever, ever deceived _you_? Trust me, I'm doing this for the good of the Empire." Blood's eyes grew wide, her voice low, growing more eager, more ravenous. "The power I wield will make the Empire _so much_ more, so much greater than it has ever been before." A pink tongue flicked over lips in anticipation. "I will make it enduring, eternal. I will protect it for a hundred thousand years. Even the boundaries between life and death will be nothing to me.

"I will give clemency to those feeble few who follow you, the life of your ragtag band in exchange for your loyalty, Dawn Star. Your power has grown in the years since I let you escape, no doubt with thanks to your father's tutelage, as I had foreseen. Join me and we will break bonds of our antiquated gods and bring forth a new Empire, a world where men can decide their own fates, a world without loss, without death, without drought or… betrayal." The light of fire danced in Blood's oval eyes.

"Snow… " For a moment, she thought she saw the woman in brown again, beckoning like a shadow in the background. Dawn Star blinked and shook her head, "this is madness! You can't turn back time, or raise the dead, or make these… these promises you're making! It's not right! _Please_. It's not too late to turn back. Restore what you took from the Water Dragon, from the Heavens. I will help you. Together, we can still—"

"I am YOUR EMPRESS!" Blood snapped, her voice hard and cold, "YOUR GODDESS! The Water Dragon is _gone_, would you like to join her? I'm sure it could be arranged — I promise I wouldn't be hard to convince! I let you live, Dawn Star, because of what you once meant to me. I've tolerated those feeble fools who follow since, but have you ever known why? No, of course not. You've never thought to ask yourself that question. You are also a useful _tool_." The oval eyes narrowed into slits in the dim light, the voice curled venomously around her words. "Perhaps I had a fondness for you once, but I can see that you repay my mercy with only blindness. You cannot hope to succeed. For the sake of our once friendship, I advise you to run while you can."

Blood brought her arms together in a sweeping circle, beginning low, then rising, energy rippling from her in waves. Patterns began forming in fire red and purple light, bleeding across the clearing and into the sky. Dawn Star took a step back as the energy enveloped her, an exclamation of horror on her lips.

* * *

5/15/06 I was looking at the "story hits" thing on the user stats for and came across the interesting number, "1972" for number of hits. Not all of the numbers represented are unique hits to this story, but crunch a few numbers, factor in some human behavior patterns, and when's all is said and done, there's maybe 20-30 individuals actually following this story, or at least, I think that many people have actually read _most_ of this fic. So, a big shout out! to everyone who has been reading.

And special thanks to Inquisitor Daenara, who encourages me by bugging me for more, and Reklar, who hasn't even played the game yet (you know it's coming out on PC?) but gives me good feedback anyway. Thanks, guys!


	15. Part XV

* * *

** Part XV: Legend of Blood and Snow**

* * *

From her vantage point above the seeing pool, Snow looked around at the broken farmhouse and sighed. The place was unfamiliar, but the landscape vaguely resembled Two Rivers. Flowing hills followed a pale blue sky, stark contrast to the splintered wood and charred foundations of the courtyard.

"Dawn Star," Snow asked, "Are you alright?"

The spirit of Dawn Star rolled her neck groggily, eyes still mostly closed. At the sound of her name, however, she snapped to attention. "Snow?" Her hand went for the pale blade at her side, but clenched only empty air. "No. Who are you ― _really_?"

The girl knelt to return Dawn Star's gaze with eyes as clear and sharp as mountain streams: "If you've already decided I'm not who I am, then I really can't tell you who I _am_, can I?"

Dawn Star blinked. Snow turned her attention to the ground, working quietly to gather loose pebbles from the earth to form a small circle a hand-span in diameter. "We have some time, but I'll try to sum this up quickly if you have questions. In short, you're not in your own body, right now, but you're safe, at least for the present." Dawn Star listened uneasily as the other girl continued: "I managed to keep your soul from becoming consumed by drawing you here instead, but you and I are trapped here, in a memory of sorts. Think of it like a moment frozen in time."

Completing the ring of stones, Snow gathered the smallest pebbles and placed them into the center, forming the "sze" sigil for "time." Drawing upon her remaining chi, she channeled the power into the stones, a wrinkle of effort crossing across her face as she out what little power she had left into the spell, leaving her almost on the verge of collapse. It was a glimpse of weakness easily overlooked, had Dawn Star not spent an entire childhood learning how to read such expressions. The stones began to glow a soft blue.

Dawn Star drew her lips together, contemplative, and asked again, this time more gently: "Who are you?"

The girl did not respond; her eyes looked only at the ground, partially obscured by her long hair. The white hands touched each blue lit stone as if it was a precious egg, tenderly guiding some fragile creature to life. She remained silent for so long that Dawn Star began to wonder if she should ask her companion again.

"…I'm just who you think I am, Dawn Star." The clear brown eyes lifted to meet hers, framed by a worried face, but steady and resolute, "I understand if you don't want to believe or trust me, but I don't know how I can convince you. I need your help."

Dawn Star studied the girl, took in the familiar hooded eyes, and the crooked mouth pressed together anxiously in supplication instead of a sneer. There was so much _alike_, and yet different. The way she held her shoulders, as if under a heavy weight, though stubbornly refusing to show it, the defiance in the straightness of her back, unyielding as if daring anyone to break her. Subtle things, and subtle differences. It was only the soul's echo of itself in the mind, she knew, but it was enough.

"No," Dawn Star drawled, "you're _not_ who I think you are. You're just someone who looks very like her, aren't you? But how can there be two of you? When did this happen?"

Snow sighed. "It doesn't matter. She and I ― we're the same person right now. But help me, just this once, and I think we can gain control. I promise you can do whatever you like to me afterwards: I won't fight you. Bring me to justice, or execute me. Whatever it is I'm willing to take the consequences―"

"Snow," Dawn Star asked, delivering the name tentatively, "Do you understand what that even means?"

She shook her head, "I've seen enough of… _her_, to know that—"

"Blood," Dawn Star interrupted, "she goes by Blood."

"What?"

"Monshuiye," Dawn Star said, "in the Old Tongue meant either a 'dream of blood,' or 'a dream of snow'. She decided, a long time ago, that she would no longer be Snow." Dawn Star's voice dropped softly, "Are you familiar with the story?"

"Story?"

"Many generations ago, during the era of the warring clans, there lived a princess who loved a brave warrior from East. When he went off to fight against the Horse Lords who were threatening the northern borders, she had a dream that she would be reunited with her love only on the day of the hidden sun, at the gate of the Red Phoenix. On this day, the Western wind would blow and bring with it the sound of snow, and the reunion of the lovers. So on the day foretold, the princess went to the gate to wait for her love, and just as in her dream, the Western wind blew and brought with it the sound of 'shuye,' the sound of snow."

"I remember this," Snow nodded, here eyebrows furrowed in confusion, "but I don't see—"

But Dawn Star cut her off: "It wasn't her lover who rode to the gate to greet her that day. Instead, she saw the army of his slayer approaching, a barbaric conqueror who wore the dead lover's armor as a prize. In her grief, the princess took her own blade and spilled her life's blood onto the snow before the gate, embracing her own death rather than face becoming another man's wife. Her dedication was so complete that even the gods were moved, and the two lovers became doves, so that they could live out the rest of their lives in peace. And so in death, the princess fulfilled her own prophecy, reunited with her love."

"Why are you telling me this?" Snow asked.

"Because Father named you after it story for a reason — better than he himself understood. There's another version of the tale, one in which the princess is not a princess, but the ruler of the Jade Empire; a version only recorded in Luo Li's long lost _Tian Zhan Jing_. In the second story, after her lover falls defending their homeland from the Horse Lords, the empress has a vision sent to her by the god S'heng Yien himself, who teaches her how to perform the Ritual of Heaven to save her people. The spell could only be completed on the day of an eclipse when the eye of heaven was most blind. In exchange for the sacrifice of her divine blood, the blood of gods from which she was descended, the queen took upon herself the Mantle of Heaven, and, for a brief time, commanded a power strong enough to repel the Horse Lords from the land. But the price of her victory was heavy: her life spent in the endeavor, she falls from the parapets and forever stains the stone steps of Phoenix Gate with her blood."

"For a mortal, blood is more than just life," Snow said. "But I still don't understand why you're telling this to me."

"Because when I heard Zu say that he spoke to you… I thought that there might still be good in her. I still think there still is. You may not be the same Monshuiye I know, but you _are_ linked somehow, in the same body, and that gives me hope. I can feel the difference in your souls, but I can see the similarities, too."

_Well, it's good to know at least Zu made it out… I hope_, Snow thought as she stared at her old friend, half in disbelief, half in awe, "You've grown, Dawn Star. You've really, really grown. And yet…_HOW CAN YOU STILL BE SO TRUSTING?_"

Dawn Star had the grace to look embarrassed, the flush across her cheeks reminding Snow of the girl she once knew, it seemed, in another lifetime, another world. Was this the dream, she wondered, or was that other life the illusion? Is this what she was always destined to become?

Dawn Star smiled quietly, her voice bashful: "I think we always have a choice in how our story ends, Snow ― we can choose to act, or we can choose to become victims. I choose to believe there's still good in her, we just have to find it. But she's surrounded herself with so much pain and suffering, I don't know how to reach her anymore."

Snow shook her head, still incredulous though she wasn't arguing, "Is she even human? I've seen what she's like in here, and there are parts of me that I'd never…" she trailed off, unwilling to finish the thought. She had wanted to say that her Other was nothing like her, a demon, a monster, but reason told her that she could not: that were it not for a quirk of fate at some point, somewhere, the Empress was exactly who _she_ would be, the monster she would become.

"She_is_ still human," snapped Dawn Star, the certainty in her voice drawing Snow back from her thoughts, "Somewhere. But that won't be true for long if she succeeds in usurping the Mantle of Heaven. We have to stop her, tonight. We'd been building all our strength for this moment since we found out what her plans were—"

"_We_?"

"Father and I. The ones who already could not live by her rule."

"Master Li is helping you?" Snow caught Dawn Star's questioning look. "He tried to take over the Empire, Dawn Star. And he… he killed me."

The furrows on Dawn Star's face grew deeper. "And yet you are here. That is strange. That _was_ his ambition, though, once, many years ago… but he's changed. These past five years have not been easy for any of us. To watch the Jade Empire turn to ruin, city by city, stone by stone, to see your friends fall one by one ― all at the hands of someone we once loved more than any other."

Snow fell silent. She did not know what to say.

"With my abilities, I could easily act as a catalyst for either of you," Dawn Star continued, changing the subject, "That's what you intended, right? With the sigil?" She gestured to the ground.

Nodding gratefully, Snow turned her mind back to the spell she had cast, offering Dawn Star her hand, "Yes. I think I can take us through to wherever she's fortified herself, but I'll need your help. I need you to reconstruct a moment in time when she was weakest… to the moment when she fell."

Dawn Star's face fell. "Those aren't memories I cherish."

"There's no other way."

"Then I will try," Dawn Star said.

Snow smiled. "That's all I can ask."

But Dawn Star's hand still hovered, hesitant. "I need to ask you to promise me one thing, however."

"I can't promise anything you haven't asked."

"I've read that Spirit Monks can purify a person's soul and help them move on to the next life. If there's anyway we can still redeem her, I want to take that chance."

"Despite everything she's done? The people she's killed?"

"Yes."

A buzzing sound like angry wasps began to drift up, stemming from the stones. A cloud of chi rose, following the noise, sparkling blue and yellow as it obscured the farm house and hills.

"You would still take that risk."

"Yes."

"For her… or for me?"

Dawn Star looked solemnly at her friend, her chin set, "it's the right thing to do."

Snow nodded curtly, once. Satisfied, Dawn Star took the offered hand and closed her eyes, channeling her own chi into boosting Snow's flagging strength. The buzzing grew even louder, stronger, more complex. The sound overwhelmed her thoughts, compelling her to… Dawn Star tried to focus on the past, to the moment in time when everything changed, when the world collapsed. When her best friend fell, alone and attacked, betrayed by one of their own in the fortress of the Lotus Assassins. The buzz continued to fill the yard, a vibration that echoed against her soul and pulled her towards it, towards the light, towards the stones… she fought to hold onto the image in her mind, for control, while next to her, Snow's hand tightened over hers as energy snaking between them, blue and golden bands, drawing around, drawing them in.

"Dawn Star," Snow asked as the clouds of sound and waves of light closed around them, the spell complete, "would you feel the same if I told you I killed Kia Min?"

Dawn Star's face filled with confusion as the swirl of light illuminated Snow's drawn face: lips tight, eyes hooded. She started to reply, to ask her friend what that meant, Kia Min was not dead, but brilliance flooded her eyes, and then…

* * *

Concealed against stained, broken ground the same color of his hide, the eyes of Ya Zhen the Merciless moved lazily in the darkness, slitted rubies glowing in the night. 

"The colors have changed." Ya Zhen hissed softly, "The taste is different." His long tongue flicked back and forth, darting out to snatch a broken body and bring it greedily to his mouth. For a few seconds, there was only the sound of flesh tearing from the demon's direction.

"What does that mean?" Cao Zeng finally asked.

"Nothing at all to you, mortal, but your dog of a master will want to know."

"Oh, I do take offense at that, toad. I prefer to think of us as more of a partnership. I give him dead people, he gives me money. It's all very professional, and—"

"_Do tell_," the demon interrupted, "because my inquiring mind is ever so curious: do you think your tongue will taste better baked, or sautéed? There are so many creative ways to cut a morsel…" Wet, low sounds of bones crunching beneath giant teeth accompanied the demon's words.

"Er…"

Ya Zhen laughed, cold and humorless, spewing the odd shard of bone and flying flesh. "Get the message to your Master, _shigao_. Tell him I'll be waiting. He's bringing the Strategist to the temple, is he not? That should provide for some amusement."

The slaver bent to wipe his daggers on the body at his feet. "Yes, but what does it mean when you say it's— " But the demon was already gone.

Cao Zeng sighed, throwing his stained sash over the remnants of Kia Min's face. He sheathed his blades and turned, beginning the climb sure-footed up the dark mountain pass. It wasn't that he in particular wanted to obey the demon's orders, but maybe the Empress's Consort would find some sense and use for the information. Paying use, naturally, and he set off quickly into the dark.


	16. Part XVI

* * *

**Part XVI: Enemy**

* * *

After a flash of disorientation, Snow and Dawn Star arrived in the center of a circle of glowing runes. Extending roughly fifteen paces in diameter, it encompassed both the woman as well as a third figure dressed in elegant blue and black robes.

"_You_!" Blood drawled, a low hiss, "How did_you_ survive?"

The Empress's face was pensive above a high-collared cheongsam with tight-clasped cuffs and golden dragons embroidered across the chest and abdomen. The feet and tail of the dragon clawed around her legs as if ready to come to life at any minute and do battle. Her hair was pulled taunt and high into a bun beneath a silver filigree net inset with black pearls that fell covering her head. At her neck hung a green pendant bound with a single blue ribbon. Dawn Star felt a shiver of anxiety crawl up her spine as she stared into the stark black eyes. Her hand went instinctively to her heart, she knew not why.

Snow stepped forward, facing her twin, steel behind her grim expression, "You forget that this is my mind as well. You didn't really expect to keep me locked away in my own mind, did you?" Her own simple brown training robes seemed poor comparison to her manicured doppelganger. _Even in my own mind_, Snow thought, _my clothes are grimy and stained with blood._ She wondered what Dawn Star saw, in the mirror images of the two.

Blood did not reply but turned instead to Dawn Star, who looked as vulnerable and exposed as she probably felt.

"So, you've somehow summoned some slighter version of me to hide behind, have you? What spell did you use, Dawn Star? How did you do it? Did dear father Li help you? You were never any good on your own, always relying on the strength of others. Well… what do I care? Even if she is a part of me, a sliver of my own soul, I'll destroy her nonetheless. What will you do then, little girl, without anyone else to hide you?"

The corners of Dawn Star's mouth tightened, a pinched look that made her cheeks seem even rounder and higher like the puffed face of a squirrel. It was an expression Blood was well familiar with from childhood. "Did I strike sore point, Dawn Star?" she laughed, "We could have made _such_ a better world, why can't you see that? Does thwarting the will of a goddess make you feel so accomplished, so fulfilled in what you lack?" Her eyes bore straight into Dawn Star's, two pearls of darkness ringed with a fiery light. Dawn Star felt herself begin to slip, mesmerized by the deep pools of the Empress's burning eyes… "Come with me, girl, and join my cause, it's not yet too late…"

"No!" Snow kicked, her leg a flash of brown connecting with Blood's arm before the woman's hand had reached past waist level. Blood jerked away, the Dire Flame spell vanishing from her fingertips as she spun back, just out of reach. She dropped into a White Demon stance to face her double. She had underestimated this mirror spirit.

"Ice Shard!" Snow cried, pushing Dawn Star as she leapt towards her opponent, a blade of ice forming at her fingertips. She twisted in mid-air and sent the ice blade spinning down like a silver falcon. Blood blocked, her spread hands moving apart to create a spear of ice. She pushed against Snow's ice blade, following her counter with a hard kick, which Snow dodged. Blood followed her attack with another burst of Dire Flame. The fireball broke against the ice sword, but the weapon dissolved in the blast, the impact forcing Snow her to her knees. Blood's red lips stretched into a grin that stretched from ear to ear. "You've got _years_ to go yet before you can even hope to rival me. Give up, little ghost, before I completely shatter your soul."

"Do you always talks so much?" Snow grunted, feinting to the left before darting backwards into the darkness instead.

Blood shrugged. Her spear snapped forward, the air moving with the force of her blow. A streak of white followed behind each of her strikes. The frozen shaft of ice met Snow's arm and leg with sharp raps as Snow deflected and dodged, her steps retreating further and further away from the circle of runes.

"I can't quite decide," Blood taunted, "are you really the irritation in my mind or am I actually the nightmare in yours?

The spear carved downward in an angry arc, which Snow moved to dodge, but Blood was at her side in the next instant, a forceful kick following the flashing fists of her Thousand Cuts style, her hands landing painful blows against Snow's abdomen and chest. Dropping to the floor, Snow leapt away, barely avoiding another volley of hits. She rolled her feet, still reeling as she moved into a defensive Heavenly Wave stance.

"But how long can you last, my little reflection," Blood asked, "without a source of chi, or a body?"

Snow gritted her teeth. It was true. She had exhausted her energy transporting them there, and Blood's spear form was much too fast for her to counter without a weapon. The quicksilver steps and superior style of her opponent landed blows closer and closer to the critical points on the body. She realized with a pang that the Empress was merely toying with her.

_Snow, hold on._ She felt a surge of chi energy with the words, and saw Dawn Star sitting in a meditative stance in the center of the runes. Soft blue light surrounded the warrior. Blood paused in her attacks, sensing the new disturbance. With a flick of her wrist the spear of ice vanished, and her hands began a complicated pattern in the air. Burning runes followed, power building behind every gesture.

_Dawn Star! You fool!_ The new spell roared to life in the Empress's hands, the image of a Red Dragon fronting the wave of energy that sped towards her friend. There was no time to counter. Snow simply leapt.

She took the chi blast full to the chest. The pain began in her heart and spread into her limbs and fingers, cold beyond words, like webs of frost crawling beneath her flesh. _It's not real,_ she tried to tell herself, _It's not real!_ And another wave of pain followed, worst than the last, tearing her soul in a thousand directions, her mind dispersing into visions of sharp eyes and teeth drowning beneath the silver sound of Blood's laugher floating above it all. Focus. _Focus_! She concentrated on the sound, forcing herself to listen only to the silver laughter, blocking out all else until the world finally dimmed.

Time slowed. In the stillness, sounds fell away. The pain dulled. Before her eyes, a single red thread came into focus, stretching from her heart to her opponent's and piercing through the green crystal pendant that hung between them. She held out her hands, reaching to the source, and pulled with all her strength.

Something snapped into place. It was as if the blindfold before her was lifted. How had she not seen it before? The connection between them went both ways, laying bare a vast ocean of power that was hers to direct, a power that she could tap into as easily as her twin. Snow understood. They were linked because they shared the same _po_, the same spirit, the same life source. _Then… that means…__No_. She had to ignore the thought. No self-pity. No distractions.

Snow brought her hands together, clapping over the red thread that linked her and Blood. The energy directed against her altered course, gathered around her hands, and began to bend to her shaping. The hard ruby reds of the energy changed to a cool blue as she shifted the air, pushing back against the chi. As suddenly as the attack came, it stopped. Snow dropped unceremoniously to the floor.

Blood's screams erupted into the darkness of her mind as she staggered, blue lightning crawling around her body, wracking her to the core. The camp and the valley flickered in her vision, alternating with the blue aura of the double that stood before her. She clutched at her temples, trying to hold onto her thoughts. "How… how did you do that!" she screamed.

"Perhaps," Snow said, "_I_ am actually the nightmare in your mind."

"_Bitch_." With practiced ease, Blood sent a hail of Stone Immoral hurtling at her opponent. Snow retaliated with Tempest, creating a rolling vortex that extended from her fingers into the air, swallowing the rocks as they flew towards her head. "Two can play that game!" Blood countered with her own whirlwind, which her opponent blocked with a wall of stone. The would-be goddess didn't miss a beat as she followed with a series of Ice Shards and Dire Flames.

Spell after spell flared across the emptiness, filling the darkness with vibrant blue and violet-red light. Her every move was echoed by Snow's counter, and the two traded evenly matched blows, neither giving way. Suddenly, Blood feinted, dropping limp into Snow's extended Leaping Tiger blow, taking her opponent's in order to plunge past Snow's defenses. Snow, surprised, hesitated a moment, and in that instant, Blood thrust her central and index fingers into the side of the woman's throat, tapping into the chi lines that regulated energy and paralyzing her enemy.

Blood's head lifted close to her opponent's, smiling, "You fool, What's to stop me feeding off of your chi just as easily you fed off mine?"

Snow's eyes followed the thin white line of the hand at her cheek, down to the tight black cuffs of Blood's high collared cheongsam. The green crystal swung with the woman's movement from the blue ribbon at her neck.

"Do try," Snow gasped.

The hand tightened around Snow's neck and she jolted as the Empress began the final Spirit Thief stance to drain her life-force. "This strategy is called, 'lure the tiger,'" Blood laughed, "Too bad you didn't see that one coming."

"Oh, but I did." Snow forward and snatched the green crystal, her other hand striking and sweeping around Blood's arm, locking together.

"That's not possible!"

"We're linked, didn't you realize?" Snow pushed the fist holding the crystal against Blood's chest. "You can't hold me, not with mere tricks. And if what Zu told me is true, then you never cleansed the fountains of Dirge, did you?"

"What are you doing!"

"Just a little trick Abbot Song taught me."

"That pathetic old monk?"

"You may have the heart of a goddess, but you still have the soul of a mortal."

With a muttered incantation, Snow drove her hand into the other spirit's essence, binding the _huan_ to her own with a ferocious twist. The ribbon about Blood's neck snapped, and the blue ribbons became lines of energy that wrapped around her body, binding her painfully. Blood looked at her opponent, wide-eyed and afraid, "What are you doing?" Snow didn't answer.

The energy field about the Empress dissipated as she lost her _huan_form, draining into the heart of the crystal with a sharp cry, a violet jerk, and a burst of red. Snow dropped to her knees, the green crystal heart cradled in her hands. The scream that extended from her throat reverberated through both the spiritual and the physical world, echoing into the mountains of the Land of Howling Spirits. She felt very drained all of a sudden, and defeated.

"Snow! Snow! Are you alright?" Snow awoke to Dawn Star's worried face, hovering above hers.

"Dawn Star? You're not hurt, are you?"

"No, I'm fine. I tried to break the spell when she summoned that demonic spirit, but Monshuiye blinded me with Hidden Fist. I couldn't see, or hear, or… I'm sorry I wasn't of any help."

Snow smiled tiredly at her friend. "It's alright. We're still alive, aren't we?"

"Well…"

Snow stared at her for a moment before she realized what Dawn Star meant. "Oh. Don't worry, I can get you out."

Dawn Star nodded, "But… what did you do to her?"

"Her spirit hasn't been destroyed, if that's what's you're worried about."

"But—"

"This might be a bit disorienting."

"Wha—"

Dawn Star felt ill as her head spun. The darkness around her turned, colors of blue and gold interlacing with the black, and then all blurring into dull browns and grays. She blinked and found herself back in her own body, in the world of mud and night and rain. The rain had stopped, and a pale crescent moon bled yellow light onto the earth. Snow was collapsed on the ground before her, head bowed and shoulders stiff. Dawn Star reached out to touch her friend's shoulder.

"Snow?" she asked, shaking tentatively, then more urgently, "Snow!"

* * *

7/16/2006 Quite a lot of things since the last update: 1) I've set up a Jade Empire fan site and forum at www(dot)JadeSanctuary(dot)net, so please come by to visit and chat! 2) We're starting a role-play on the forum, so if anyone is interested in participating, please register and post your input. ALL fellow fans are welcome! 3) Real work has picked up considerably, plus I have classes to work on, on top of you know, my general Wuxia flick addiction, so that is why updates are coming slow. I'm also wasting a lot of my time drawing fanart. But please, no pelting with the rocks! 


	17. Part XVII

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**Part XVII: Ya Zhen**

* * *

Thunder rolled. Dark clouds oozed rain into the mud as two figures, one large and one small, moved on either end of a very large post. The smaller, Zin Bu, paused to listen to something in the roar that his companion could not. Black Whirlwind continued counting.

"One… two… three…"

"_Oh, Wait! No, wait, nonoooagh…!_"

Without waiting, Black Whirlwind gave a massive heave that threw the post like an avalanche on the roadside. His heave was followed by the cries of, "Y_ou oaf!_" and "Heeelp!" as the unfortunate Zin Bu ― left with the bulk of the weight ― tottered precariously before falling to the ground.

Finally freed, Sagacious Zu scrambled up and tested his leg, finding nothing broken, only bruised. He took one look at the other two, words of thanks dangling on his lips, and immediately swallowed them. He decided that he'd save his thanks for some other saviors he might actually have respected.

"_HA – HA – HA – HA – HA_!" barked the Black Whirlwind.

"Oh my Lord, August Personage of Jade, what have I ever done to deserve this fate? Get this thing off of me, Whirlwind, you drunken idiot!"

"Hey!" The large man yelled, "That's _the Black Whirlwind_ to you!"

Behind Zu, a voice like steel across sandstone grated, "Oh. What a lovely reunion. Almost sickening, isn't it, how they carry on about each other?"

He turned to meet the large, red eyes of a tall and willowy young woman. Her low and guttural voice belied the long, drawn hair and heart-shaped face that smiled perversely into his.

"_Demon_," Zu spat, raising his fists. "What do you want? I won't make it easy for you ― we'll not die without a fight!"

"Oh no, _not him_! This is very inconvenient. I'm not ready to _die!_" complained Zin Bu.

"A fight?" Black Whirlwind perked up, though he eyed the girl skeptically, "Are you sure this one is any good? There's no fun killing the weak ones. It never lasts, and afterwards, you still feel unsatisfied."

"Shut up," said Sagacious Zu.

"You're supposed to kill him!" shouted Zin Bu.

The woman named Wildflower rolled her eyes. "As if I'd be impressed or intimidated by your empty bravado? You couldn't even last three minutes against me, brute."

"What?" roared the Black Whirlwind, "I'd never fall to a wisp of a little girl like you!"

"Er… help?" asked Zin Bu.

Zu began to edge around the speakers, hoping to flank the new opponent.

"I can still see you," Wildflower whipped her neck around, tilting her head to look archly at Zu. She reached back and brought a blade out lazily, floating the tip just before his nose. "Not that way. That's the wrong way. We're going to go _this_ way,_ towards_ the fight."

"There's no need," a new female voice interrupted, clear and firm, "it's already come to you. Lower your blade and face _me_, Ya Zhen."

"Ya Zhen? Hey, aren't I supposed to fight you?" asked the Black Whirlwind.

"Yes, yes! But no, no! Get me out first! It's imperative that you get me out first!" yelled the minor god.

"Why? You're just going to―"

"Oh?" Wildflower/Ya Zhen deliberately ignored the bickering of the two and turned to the newcomer instead. She gave a laugh that sounded like the sound of acid rasping down a blade. "_You're_ not my master, little soul."

Dawn Star strode forward, purpose in her steps and blue fire burning in her hands. "That won't stop me from killing you."

"No. It would not. You're as ruthless as she is, aren't you, in your own little way? Ah, but I'm here to make an offer, not a fight." Wildflower twirled her blade a moment before dropping it. "See? Unarmed. You wouldn't harm an unarmed girl, would you?" The heart-shaped face grinned, unnaturally wide.

"I wouldn't mind, I've killed plenty of people without weapons," grumbled the Black Whirlwind.

"No, but if you kill me, your little godling over there would have failed in _his_ mission, wouldn't he? Sneaky, those Celestial Bureaucrats."

"What do you mean―"

"Dawn Star," Zu cautioned, "I wouldn't trust him."

Dawn Star nodded. "Ya Zhen, speak if you have something to say and be done with it. If you're here just to taunt us, let me assure you, the effort is wasted."

Wildflower/Ya Zhen rolled her eyes, "Your rebels are fallen, your ranks have been scattered, and even the Glorious Strategist has strolled right into the open arms of the Dark Consort's waiting ambush, and yet you still have time to go indulge in your paranoia. You doubt me? _I_ was not the one who betrayed you, princess. I have always been true to _my_ character. But ask the little god: _he_ knows what's been going on. He's felt the disturbances as I have — haven't you, bean counter? And you can't kill me, not now." The red eyes flicked across the night, a forked tongue switching back and forth, tasting, searching, "where is she, the Other? The one we were warned of?"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" squealed the Magic Abacus.

"Who do you mean?" inquired Dawn Star.

With a charming smile, Wildflower focused on Dawn Star. "Li now lives between the two worlds of life and death, but his daughter is still sly enough for games? I'm sure the Glorious Strategist would be proud. He may not be long for either world, however, if my _former_ allies are successful in their plans to sacrifice his soul." She paused theatrically over the words, drawling out the emphasis. "But I am the _only one_ who can get you to your father in time. You want to save him, don't you?"

"Why should I trust you?"

"Ah, the classic question. And yet so cliché. You heroes never think of anything new to say, do you? Because I am motivated by purely _selfish_ reasons, of course, and you can _always_ trust a demon to act in ways that benefit his own interests."

"And what interests would those be?"

"A simple trade. The Ritual of Assumption continues, but you have no way to interrupt it in time; the leader of the Guild has had too far a head start, too long and too fast. But I have not walked upon this world for a thousand years without learning the secrets of it darker paths, and so, I give you this choice: in exchange for the Dragon Amulet and Tudityan's heart, and if you can convince those two idiots to lay down their weapons and stop trying to menace me ― yes, Black Whirlwind, I can _hear_ you trying to raise your blade behind me ― I will give you the opening you need to rescue your father. Through the mountains and up to Dirge where you will take the risks and I will reap the harvest. Everybody wins, especially me."

"What do you want the Dragon Amulet for?"

"That's my own business, princess."

"We need that crystal."

"Why? You've already defeated my mistress, what more do you need it for? I merely wish to be on the winning side of this conflict. But you will never get to Dirge in time without my help."

Dawn Star pursed her lips into a thin line, conflicted. "I can't make the choice for Zin Bu and Black Whirlwind."

A new voice called out from the wreckage. "I can. And I say we take it."

The group turned. Snow stepped from the shadows of a fallen tent. She had replaced the muddied robes she had before for deep purple battle silks the color of an orchid's heart and the sashes swirled around her legs as she moved, the creamy silk sash at her waist dancing a sharp contrast to the brown, the mud. It was held to her side by several small metal buckles, bronze in color, which matched a larger belt buckle across the front. Thigh-high boots in the same magenta color as her clothes stepped lightly over the mud. Her hand moved reflexively across her stomach as she walked, self-consciously covering her body under all the attention, and she cursed herself for letting Dawn Star talk her into wearing something this revealing. But it was less water-logged than what she had before.

"Ah," Wildflower said. "There you are."

The self-consciousness lasted only a moment. At the words, Snow lifted her head high and dropped her hand, entering into the circle of companions and surveying the party with cool eyes and shoulders squared. She matched the dare in the demon's red eyes. "There are mines and tunnels leading from these foothills into the mountains, but they haven't been used in decades. There's no telling what kind of debris or structural integrity still exists there, nor is there any guarantee that the paths themselves are traversable. It's the fastest way through, but dangerous. You know them?" It was not a question.

"Winding, treacherous paths," Ya Zhen agreed, "but with proper 'guidance,' you can still traverse safely, and expediently."

Snow let slide the demon's sarcasm. "I don't think we have a choice if you want to save Master Li," she said to Dawn Star, "and more importantly, there will be no way to stop the Ascension in time. Even if the Empress is currently incapacitated, from what you've told me about this Ritual, I don't think I'll be able to keep her bound if she manages to claim the Mantle of Heaven." She inclined her head in the direction of Zin Bu. No words were said, but Dawn Star immediately understood. With her curt nod of approval, Snow moved to inspect the shouting of the Magic Abacus.

"I'm not trusting you," Zu growled and surged forward to intercept Snow.

"Zu!" Dawn Star protested, raising her hand to divide between the two.

Snow sighed, "Not this again."

"Zu," Dawn Star said, laying a restraining hand gently on his arm, "please!" He seemed about to argue, but fell silent with her look. She kept her hand on his arm as Snow knelt to examine Zin Bu.

"Don't move," she said to the little mustached god, who looked at her, terrified, as she raised her hand. The blood-curdling scream that followed continued on for far longer than it took for Snow to actually split the pole cleanly in two with one blow.

"_Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa_!"

The group looked on with skewed expressions as the Magic Abacus carried on.

"Drama queen," Wildflower said dryly.

"Can I kill you now?" asked the Black Whirlwind.

Snow tapped Zin Bu gently on the shoulder. "Zin Bu… Zin Bu! You're fine. Nothing's missing." A single eye peeked open, and slowly, then the other followed. Zin Bu the Magic Abacus looked up and down the length of his body and back at her. She reached down and pulled him up without a word. Dawn Star cleared her throat expectantly.

"Zin Bu, is it true, what he says?" said Dawn Star.

"Ah, er, yes," preened the little god, dusting himself frantically, "Uhm, exactly, that's exactly it. No, you can't kill me!" he yelled at the Black Whirlwind. "No, don't kill her either!"

"Why not?"

"Exactly what?" asked Dawn Star.

"Er, exactly what were _you_ asking?"

"Is it true?" Dawn Star repeated, "Did…" she hesitated and glanced at Snow, "Did Sky really capture my father?"

"I, uh," The Magic Abacus turned to look nervously at the other woman as well. Snow's face was impassive as she looked deliberately into the distance of the mountains. "Yes," he nodded, "Yes."

"Then he is truly at the hands of those villains." Dawn Star's voice wavered only momentarily. She turned to Wildflower, and back to Zin Bu. "Does the Celestial Order have a death warrant for the demon?"

"Er, well… that's complicated, you see…"

"Anyone who wants to harm Ya Zhen will have to go through me." said Snow.

"Yes, but _you are_ the complication!" exclaimed Zin Bu.

"What does that―"

"I agree to your terms." Dawn Star interrupted. "You understand that I do not currently have the heart of Tudityan in my possession?"

The demon shrugged. "Ah, but you _will_. With _my_ help."

"Then you will guide us, and following the successful retrieval of my father, I will give to you the jewel."

"I will guide you, and _regardless_of the successful retrieval of the Glorious Strategist, I will take the heart and be on my… 'merry little way'." The demon gave a rasping chuckle. "And the two would-be demonslayers?" Wildflower arched an eyebrow.

"A truce, until after we reach Dirge." Snow answered.

"WHAT!" The Black Whirlwind yelled.

Snow did not move. She stood, hands bent slightly behind her side, her gaze carefully drawn against the distant landscape. But the air around her grew dark and chilling. "You haven't won a single match against me, Black Whirlwind. By your own standards, that makes_my_ decision final." She looked imperiously at him. Anger and indecision warred across the big warrior's thick-knit eyebrows for a moment before he finally laughed out loud. "The girl's still got the old spunk, ha!" he yelled, but he relaxed his stance and put the axes away.

"Zin Bu," Snow continued, "What did you mean by calling me a compli—"

But Wildflower was already beckoning, pulling away the Magic Abacus with both arms as she guided them through the decimated campground. Across the earth was scattered armor bent or torn or pitted and melted; mangled, charred, and blackened bodies curled over gaping wounds and spears ― the victims of explosions, weapons, and the spells of ice and fire that had raged across the battle not so long before.

Snow walked several paces behind Wildflower, her eyes fixed for any sudden movements from the girl. _This is Wildflower?_ She wondered, _or Ya Zhen?_ She had suppressed her surprise when she saw the woman, but no matter how Snow looked, she found it hard to believe that this sultry, athletic woman was what Wildflower the girl had become. _What happened?_ It didn't add up_. If I had somehow fallen, died, and then been revived… is it possible to return as a completely different person?_ She remembered the cold, marbled surface of the Imperial Palace tiles beneath her face. _But how did I get to Dirge?_ There was too much time unaccounted for.

Her thoughts allowed her to avoid looking at anything too pointedly, chastened by the guilt that much of the carnage came from her hands._Blood's blood on my hands_, she thought, and mentally kicked herself for coming up with such a terrible pun. There was little that could be done to alleviate the guilt. It was another responsibility on so many others. Snow felt tired, once again, heart and soul. Putting the spirits in the fields to rest she could do, but who would help her? When would it be her rest? And behind it all there was the nagging knowledge that somehow, here, in this world, _she_ had been the one who created the dead in the first place.

Dawn Star watched her friend's guarded face carefully. Her right hand agitated along the pommel of her blade, a nervous twitch that had developed in the years since the Water Dragon fell; a habit learned from countless nights spent sleeping fitfully in fear of ambushes, assassinations, and the onslaught of whatever wild beasts might roam the night. She could read in the stiff bend of Snow's shoulders that her friend was faking nonchalance as they walked—stepping just a little too fast, just too quick to be merely brisk. That, and she was completely avoiding looking at anything on the ground. And underneath it all, Dawn Star felt she knew the pain and suffering in the world they both shared.

"How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine."

"Was the spirit path ritual draining?"

Snow shook her head. "I'm fine," she repeated. "I've put them to rest. For now." Dawn Star nodded. The fallen army of the rebel spirits had been the first thing Snow dealt with when she came out of her unconsciousness. But it was only the start of many reparations that needed to be made. "Snow," Dawn Star started again, this time more hesitantly.

"Yeah?" Snow turned to see that the chi that gathered around Dawn Star had grown dark and deep, a shade of red that indicated worry and anxiety.

"I've been meaning to ask you… Before your fight with Monshuiye, when we were alone, you said something strange that I didn't understand. What did you mean when you said that you killed Kia Min?"

Snow was quiet. The irony of Dawn Star's use of the formal name to mention her double amused as much as it troubled. "Do you remember that last day in Two Rivers, right after Kia Min and I had sparred? She might still be alive if it wasn't for me. I replaced her red silk grass poultice with the bearded tongue grass before Gao the Greater's men attacked. She could have stood a chance if she had fought with a good leg. But I lied. She didn't have the right poultice for her wounds. When I came back, after Gao's men had taken the school, I found the men laughing. Laughing, Dawn Star. Laughing at the crippled girl with the wasted leg trying to defend herself. And then I watched then cut her down. By the time I got close enough, it was already too late. She could have had a chance if it wasn't for _me_." Snow surprised herself with the sudden that burst through her voice. After Gao the Lesser, Dawn Star, and herself, Kia Min had been the most competent student of their group under Master Li's tutelage. There was a bright, unwritten future still in the young girl's fate. But it was cut down before her time because of _her_.

Snow turned to face again into the mountains and picked up her pace, leaving Dawn Star behind, but Dawn Star was not to be dissuaded. She followed insistently, refusing to be pushed aside. "But that is not impossible. I parted with Kia Min less than two candle lengths ago."

She stopped. "That doesn't make any sense. The Lotus Assassins attack on Two Rivers is two months past. I remember―"

"Two Rivers?" Dawn Star looked at her sadly. "Two Rivers burned five years ago."

Snow looked curiously at Dawn Star, an unspoken question in her eyes, but it was all starting to sink in. "Five years ago… I didn't die at the Lotus Assassin fortress. _I survived_. Because Zu—" she pointed to the man, "HE saved my life."

Zu snarled. "You're mad. I'm no fool. Don't try to dredge up the past with pretenses of sympathy. I don't know what your scheme is… Dawn Star trusts you, but I do not."

"Pretense of sympathy?" Why didn't the man ever make sense? "What am I pretending?"

Zu's eyes were cold but rather than meet hers, he growled and turned away. Snow turned to Dawn Star, but the girl's head was bowed in thought and no answers were forthcoming. The remaining party had stopped to listen to the three. Snow chose her words carefully: "Believe me, I didn't die in the Lotus Assassin fortress as you all seem to believe, I died at the hands of Master Li. I think I know what your father has come to mean to you, but it's true. Master Li deceived us all, in the end.

"Zu saved me from the Assassins. He showed me how to sabotage the Jade Golems that the Assassins were using to control the Empire. He gave his life up for my sake… for my mistake, really. I never truly appreciated the consequence of my own actions, or what honor and sacrifice meant… until you." Her eyes were earnest and red-rimmed as she looked into his. "I_ am_ sorry. Seeing your world is like seeing what I could be, could have become. Nothing in the books I read, in all the lessons on Imperial etiquette and intrigue that Master Li taught could have prepared me for this reality. But _this_ is not me. This isn't even a future possibility of what I could be. And I feel so powerless, even knowing that. Putting the spirits of those people to rest was _all_ I could do for them. There's just so much wrong _everything_ and I need time to figure this out, think of a way to set things right, understand where I am and why I'm here, it's all just so much to take in…"

"Time travel, power struggles, and spiritual possessions… it's all so complicated, isn't it?" Dawn Star smiled faintly, and for a moment, Snow thought she saw an echo of the young girl that had followed her from Two Rivers. _But a different Dawn Star_, she mused, _a different world. _

Zu was contemplative as Snow spoke, reluctantly swallowing every word. What she said went against every truth that he hoarded in his heart. "I never saved you, or anyone," he broke at last, and threw a pained glance to the subdued Dawn Star, "_I_ was the one who failed. I left, believing it was for the best. It was a mistake and that haunts me to this day. I did not know that Lian would betray you to the Lotus Assassins. Perhaps if I had stayed, then… the Assassins should have been_ my_ demons, _my_past,_ my_ battle to face. If I had stayed, as you said, then perhaps we would not all be here today."

"Lian didn't betray anyone," Zin Bu piped in. "That was all just a little misunderstanding." He blanched when the others turned and stared. "Uh, well, maybe not so little a misunderstanding after all?"

"Zin Bu," Dawn Star asked, "if you knew this, why didn't you say anything! It's been so many years…"

"The auspices of Heaven are hard to interpret, and there are so many forms from which we could choose to predict the path of any particular event. It could have meant anything when she went to seek Monshuiye's news in the palace, the interpretation of her actions was not up to us gods to decide! Erm, yes, you didn't really understand any of that at all, did you? I suppose I do owe everyone an explanation, yes?"

"Oh, just be quiet, you Meddlesome Peddler," Ya Zhen cut in. "As touching as this little heart-to-heart is to us all, we _are_ short on time, I'm sure you each recall? By the time this stringy accountant gets done telling anything, it will be long past the time to celebrate the creation of a new Celestial Order with that sniveling slick-haired Guildmaster as god. And whatever miracles I may be able to achieve by taking you through the shortcut in the mines, I assure you, it will _not_ magically transport you to the Temple of Dirge on time if you continue to dawdle."

"The little demon girl is right, we don't have time," Black Whirlwind agreed, "Let's just get this over with. The sooner we get to Dirge, the sooner I can wet my blades!"

"No. I want to know what we're facing before we get there," Snow said. "Who am I, where am I, and why am I here? I don't think _anyone_ will be able to fight easy knowing that I could turn at any minute into someone else entirely. You owe us all some answers, Zin Bu."

"Isn't that what I've been trying to say I'll explain?" asked the exasperated god as he began rummaging in his sleeves, "Then let me explain!" He pulled a small orb from his inner pocket. Each member watched with interest as he held up the clear ball and a bright flash blinded the group.

In the white brilliance that filled her eyes, Snow heard the god's voice continue with his message, "The time-stop will only hold for a few minutes. That body you've possessed _is_ you, and yet it isn't. You've been dead for the past seven days, but time passes differently in the Spirit world. This is your final test in Dirge, the cleansing of the Demon of Suffering where the Water Dragon could not. If you can purify this land, and destroy Suffering in his own realm of power, then Dirge will be saved, and so will you. If you want to rejoin the side of the living, then you will need a body, and _this_ world needs a hero…"

* * *

9/5/06 Edited this when it was very late at night, so there may be a few inconsistencies I'll still be polishing in the morning. I think I have one to two more chapters to go, depending on how much action I want to pack in before I give up entirely and spew blood over the keyboards. I had to go over large chunks of the previous chapters for this submission… If I stay on target long enough to finish this tale, I'm sure all will be good. I've always know exactly what the ending would be like, but in-between, I've added so many new threads that I don't know if I'll be able to do the story justice anymore and tie them all up. (Sometimes, even I forget what's happened too.)

Wish me luck, and send lots of words of positive encouragement! (Shameless fishing for compliments.)


	18. Part XVIII

* * *

**Part XVIII: Between Worlds**

* * *

_The time-stop will only hold for a few minutes. That body you've possessed is you, and yet it isn't. You've been __dead__ for the past seven days, but time passes differently in the Spirit world. This is your final test in Dirge, the cleansing of the Demon of Suffering where the Water Dragon could not. If you can purify this land, and destroy Suffering in his own realm of power, then Dirge will be saved, and so will you. If you want to rejoin the side of the living, then you will need a body, and this world needs a hero…_

"…_it might help if you envisioned it like a string. A red thread of Destiny, as it were, which draws everything and everyone together. We are all bound together in our past and present lives by the red threads of Fate, which tie our souls inextricably to the souls of all the people we are destined to meet. It may be before memory, or during the richness of our prime, or it may be nearly at the end, when we are fading away from what we understand of consciousness. The space and time for which we will have to spend with each other is determined by the length of the red line between, and the strength of our bond limited by its thickness. _

_Like a spider's red web, these lines unite us all in a linked destiny, drawing the people who come into our lives to us for this reason. This supernatural force, envisioned as the thread, is called 'yuan'."_

"_I don't remember any of this."_

"_Traveling between worlds can take a lot out of a soul."_

"_And you?"_

"_I'm able to hold a shape because my counter-part still exists in this world. Realize, however, that even this isn't without its price, and if this world should die, there will be repercussions in your own. And there will be no peace for you or any other soul, mortal or divine."_

"_But I've already subdued the Empress… this 'other self' you mentioned… What do you still need me for?"_

"_She's just the beginning. Beneath the corruption of Dirge spreads a darkness far more dangerous than you realize. Things from beyond even the Spirit Realm."_

"_I'm not sure I understand."_

"_Well, trans-dimensional travel and altered states of consciousness can be a bit of a challenge for those of the limited mortal variety to grasp—"_

"—_is_this_world actually real?"_

"_Haven't you been listening? It doesn't matter. If you die in this one, it's as good as dying in any other."_

"_But I_**am**_ dead. I'm not supposed to be here, there, anywhere. My thread of fate ended, why am I being tied here, to this other soul? I should really be—"_

"_Ah—I think there's one thing that you're missing."_

"_And that is?"_

"_You're not the one who ran out of time. __Your thread was not cut—it was stolen. You're fated to live up to another hundred and twenty years, if you're lucky. According to the Book of Destiny, you should not have died in your encounter with Sun Li. __Monshuiye, or Blood, your counterpart here, hers is the string that was cut five mortal years ago. But she's somehow bound an Entity from beyond the darkness of worlds to trade her fate for yours. And in this there may be a chance to both defeat her and her Ally once and for all, as well as return you to your own Destiny, and to life." _

"_What do I need to do?"_

"_Maybe you could question them to death."_

_She did not respond._

"_Still no sense of humor then."_

"_Not so much."_

"_I needn't ask if you understand how serious the—"_

"_No."_

"_Cold as the driven—"_

"_Snow. Yes, I've heard that one before."_

"_If you fail, I'll die."_

"_You'll die anyway if I don't go."_

"_True. Just thought I'd give you some extra incentive."_

"_How does that help? You're not telling me what I need to do. How do I defeat it? What do I need to do?"_

"_You're already been given all we can. The rest you will have to figure out for yourself."_

_Silence again._

"_You don't sound much like the Zin Bu I know."_

"_You don't think I'm a hapless buffoon all the time, do you?"_

"_I admit I bought the 'I'm just here to sell you merchandise anytime you call' story without question."_

"_One of my lesser aspects as peddler god."_

"_Who are you, really?"_

"_Does it matter? You will never see this manifestation again."_

"_Enough exposition then," she said, "I have a demon to kill."_

* * *

The temple doors opened wide into a frozen courtyard spread with snow. The scimitar moon brandished its crescent points above the blood-bathed sky, red and tinged with darkness as the sun slowly fell. True to its name, the Land of the Howling Spirits wailed a song of mourning in the background, its blade-edge keen slitting ears and sky alike.

The Dark Lord and his entourage took care treading the steps up the Temple's central entrance, the wrinkled layers of ancient stone smoothed into slippery wholeness by the winter ice, a frozen polish. At the top of the stairs he paused only long enough to gesture to the men to his left and right. Globed lamps in hand, they scurried to light the torches around the arched entrance and raced to bring their illumination to the rest of the Temple, hurrying as quickly as possible without falling over the ice-sleek floor.

A sudden shock of steel brought one Guild member skating to a halt, the point of a blade a bare finger's breadth away from the gap between his eyes. The globed lamp dropped and shattered on the brittle floor. His shallow breathing was matched by a deeper, much more sinister draw of breath.

"_Where is my Master?_" rang a voice like hollow bronze.

"Withdraw your blade, Death's Hand." Sky walked with firm steps into the inner Temple. His face and posture showed no fear, nor irritation.

"_You hold no power over me. I exist only to serve Her will."_

"And is that why she's left you here, then, to guard the empty Temple? Then well done. Perhaps there will be a reward later, whatever reward can be given to a beast such as you've become. You may be her favorite, but you're still nothing more than a tool to her. Don't get in my way."

The figure didn't move. Sky held his position, his every muscle an expression of irrefutable will. There was no question that the orders were meant to be obeyed.

"_I await the arrival of my Master._"

"Impeding my will is to defy hers." Sky growled.

At this the creature appeared to consider, but it held its thought so long that even the elite-trained Guild men began to look at each other uncomfortably, anticipating some violent confrontation, but they were too disciplined to actually interrupt. Finally, Death's Hand withdrew sheathed his blade with a silken sigh of cold metal. The man on the ground breathed a quiet sigh of relief.

"_You have the heart-stone Amulet?_"

"I do."

"_I will make the preparations._" The armored figure seemed expectant. It did not move.

"The Amulet is_ my_ possession. I will make the preparations."

"_Hsssss."_

Sky smiled at the creature's dissatisfaction. He pulled the lantern-bearer from the ground up by the collar and in the same motion, thrust the man behind him. Another ran forward to take his place, passing from sconce to sconce, dipping the fire close to mounted wall sockets and bringing to new life to the patterns in the shadows.

"Feel free to leave at anytime," Sky said as he passed the motionless Death's Hand. The creature would not move from its post. It would stand there until the day its armor withered to dust if the Empress was so inclined to forget it. That was the power she held. With her silver call, armies moved at her command. Men's hearts rose. Her beauty inspired warriors into furious combat and ruthless victory. On the battlefield, the red thread silk weave around her body distinguished her in the center of the maelstrom; silver, black, gold, and copper-clad fighters converging in her glory, in her honor, falling. Her hair was a defiant flag, proud and black against the bloodied battlefield and the shinning, blood-streaked beacon of her face foretold their victory.

Life. Power. Vivacity. All of the things that had died when he lost his daughter ten years ago, she gave back tenfold. Theirs would ultimately be an Empire without destruction and death, famine or drought. There would be a paradise on earth, no longer just the privilege of the Heavens. He longed for the hour when their long campaign would truly be done, the Empire's future secured, and they could retire together into each other, and leave the cares of the world behind them. In the darkness, there was even the promise of a child of their own. Soon.

Sky toyed with the amulet in his hands as the Guild brought the stands, artifacts, charms, incenses, and the descendent of Heaven's chosen son, Sun Li the Glorious Strategist himself, in preparation for the ritual. He eyed the stone-cold Death's Hand carefully, curious whether the creature would show any reaction to the presence of his kin—to the man who had brought the former prince Sun Kin this curse of eternal unlife. Somewhat to Sky's disappointment, the armored figure did not move an inch, nor turn with curiosity to look when the comatose Sun Li was brought in.

On the furthest altar, tall candles as long as a man's leg and counted down the time with rings of wax marked with gunpowder. The time-telling candles were a Mad Kang invention, designed such that each candle let forth a short burst of flame when it reached the hour. It was just like him to use an alchemical explosion to count time. As the candle burned down to another ring, a Guild captain approached him, bowing apologetically.

"Cao Zeng requests your audience, m'Lord."

"The vagrant has finally decided to show, has he?" Sky asked, half amused and half annoyed. "Tell him I'm not in the mood for his lengthy exploits."

"He says it's an urgent matter, Sire. For your ears only. And says it may well be worth some… exchange."

"Money," Sky frowned. "We are about to call down the Mantle of Heaven and he is concerned about the matter of his pay?"

"He suggested that it may be regarding the missing toad demon, Lord."

"Very well," Sky agreed, "Call him in and tell him to make it quick. The ritual begins the hour before down, and we don't have any time to burn."


	19. Part XIX

* * *

**Part XIX: The Unnamed**

* * *

No one seemed to remember the exchange with Zin Bu. Snow tried to catch the merchant god's eye, but he looked studiously at the muddy ground and lamented continuously about water proof shoes. The party was silent for a long while, and moved with torches into the ancient mines like dreamers in a fog. The tunnels buried deep under the world of Dirge. Ya Zhen, in the form of the woman who still called herself Wildflower, moved lightly ahead, checking markers, choosing paths, smiling white teeth that led them further into darkness.

Deeper and deeper the winding passages convulsed, twisted into the rock, distorted her perceptions. It was hard for Snow to stay in the present. As they descended, she felt the eerie prickling of the earth's spirit, a deformed and raw presence around her. The air was heavy and something sourceless but foul floated in it. She found it hard to think. A fighter whose mind and spirit were elsewhere, who had to focus hard during each attack was a fighter off her guard, a liability. She couldn't understand what exactly was wrong. And after the fifth marker they passed, Snow gently but solemnly collapsed onto the floor, struggling for breathe.

"Snow!" Dawn Star's clammy hands reached out, touching her arm. The other woman must have felt it too. "Something wrong," Snow muttered, but her mouth did not move correctly and the sounds came to her from a distance.

"A trap!" Zu yelled, turning his staff on Ya Zhen. The demon girl's eyes narrowed and her eyes flared red for an instant.

"Idiot." She said, knocking the staff aside, "As if I'd have to resort to poisoning your spirits to leave you all down here when I could just as well seal all the exits. Stupid, _stupid_, all of you humans. I can't believe this vessel was once one of yours."

"No, Zu, it's something else," Dawn Star interrupted, "I feel it too. Something dark here, something terrible."

"The worst part is scurrying around in these lightness tunnels, like rats!" said The Black Whirlwind. "Give me something solid I can fight and I'll show you something terrible! Give me ghosts, for that matter. Whatever I can sink my blades into."

"I—I wouldn't want to be caught in anything down here," whispered Zin Bu, "These tunnels are ancient. They were here even before the first Spirit Monks of Dirge arrived."

"All the more reason to kill whatever is down here, then. Nobody will miss it."

"It, it's just not a 'thing' you can kill, Black Whirlwind," Dawn Star said, "I don't know what to call it. It's _something_, yes, but it's dark and faceless, and—"

" 'Unamed is the source of all things'," quoted Snow, " 'Named, the Mother of all things.' " Snow tried to stand, but her legs were disobedient, and she slumped down again. "Ya Zhen, you know what's actually down here, don't you?"

The demon girl folded her arms, "I might have a fair idea."

Zu, still glowering at the girl, knelt and helped Dawn Star help Snow up. His eyes never left Ya Zhen's face. "Were you hoping for a larger audience?" he growled.

"No." Ya Zhen looked pointedly at Black Whirlwind and Zin Bu, and back again at Zu. Snow nodded, and the two, though seeming uncertain, obeyed the orders. Zu cross his arms and planted his feet stubbornly in the ground. The demon eyed him calculatingly, came to a decision, and leaned forward, "I _was_ hoping none of you would be sensitive enough to notice." Ya Zhen shrugged, "No sense needlessly worrying you all. Five years ago I brokered a trade between your precious Empress and the powers beyond. Don't ask me who or what they are, these are beings beyond the scope of human comprehension. They are the Unnamed, if you like, or the Darkness of Worlds. Humans make up such ridiculous names for what they don't understand. They are everything that was in the universe before order was born. And yet they are nothing."

"These are creatures that live… outside worlds?" Dawn Star asked.

"Yes. Did I not just say, 'Please ask me stupid questions about the nature of these beings'? Where was I? Oh yes, immortality. In exchange for her soul as a portal into our world, our erstwhile leader was be given a second life." Ya Zhen turned to Snow, "_Your_life. They may explain your particular… resonance with the energy of this space. Why you are so affected. One upon a time, this was its resting place."

Zu started, "You. _You_ had a part in what started all this? No. You _are_ the one to blame. I should cut your head where you stand!"

Snow raised her hand. "That won't help." She nodded to Ya Zhen, "Go on."

"Destroying the world wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I made the trade. But in any case, the Empress had other plans. She thinks that by assuming the Mantle of Heaven she will be able to seal off the Jade Empire from all other influences outside the land. She's afraid. Afraid of death. Afraid of that darkness outside and within. You are ultimately human, after all. You have heard of the Legend of Blood and Snow? It is possible for a mortal to 'borrow' the Mantle of Heaven for a time. But a mortal ascending to August Ruler of the Divine is against the foundations of natural order. It would cause a rift in reality that will open the gates to the beyond. And that is what they want."

Zu snorted. "She didn't realize the fatal flaw in her plan?"

Wildflower licked her lips with preternaturally long tongue. "When you are dying of thirst in the desert do you care that whether the water you drink is real or a mirage? Chances are that you are already too deluded to think."

"But the Empress has been contained," protested Snow. "If she is not there, they cannot use their connection to her spirit to open the gateway…"

Wildflower shook her head. "The Ancients are no fools. They left a caretaker of their interests in case anything went wrong. What has served as the left hand of the Empress is just one of their agents in disguise. The ritual proceeds as planned. They only needed a descendent of divine blood—Sun Li—for Death's Hand to open the way."

"Blood," said Dawn Star, "It always comes back to Blood." Even Ya Zhen grimaced at the unpleasant pun.

"Did she know?" Snow wondered, "Was she…" she hesitated at the thought, "No, that's too terrible. Did she really think she could create Heaven on Earth?"

Wildflower shrugged again. "Yes. No. I don't pretend to understand humans." The word rolled off her tongue as if it were the vilest thing on earth. "What I've told you doesn't change anything, except, of course, that now we have wasted more than enough time."

"How do you survive down here without becoming fatigued, Ya Zhen?" Snow asked. Her breathing had become less labored, but her breathe was still shallow.

"Call your men back." The demon said. "I'm only going to teach this once. Hold your hands thus. Now, focus on your chi energy and draw it into your dan tian…"

**Footnotes:**

1) Legend of Blood and Snow — Recounted in Part XV.

2) "Unamed is the source of all things. Named, the mother of all things"—is taken from the first article of the _Tao Teh Jing_, one of the fundamental texts of Taoist philosophy.

3) Dan Tian—is what the Chinese believe to be the source of all chi energy in the body. If you place your hand right below your belly button, the area roughly four inches between your belly button and your groin area is where the dan tian is supposed to be. This is the place where the energy of your head, arms, and legs intersect, and is the "ocean" from which your chi strength originates.

* * *

3/1/08 Yay, update! Thanks to Inquisitor Dae/Fiiroza/whatever you are calling yourself now for prodding me on this one. Incidentally, and probably of no interest at all to readers in general, I've started studying Tai Chi at my local Kung Fu school last year and it's amazing to come back to Jade Empire after this long hiatus with this fresh perspective in mind. For those of you who think Tai Chi is only the kind of thing old people practice in parks at ungodly hours in the morning, you obviously haven't seen a real Tai Chi master in action. They are amongst the deadliest people on earth in unarmed encounters, and the moves of this "ultimate martial art" (Tai Chi literally means "Ultimate State") are actually all designed to kill in one blow. Is this the origin for the mythological "Touch of Death"? I don't know, but I'm intrigued. 


	20. Part XX

* * *

** Part XX: Dirge  
**

* * *

Ya Zhen's focusing technique was true to the demon's word. By channeling their energy into the dantian, the center of chi energy, the party was able to shield themselves from the influences of the dark tunnels. They exited the mines through a narrow opening in the mountain. The moon, a pus-yellow slit barely visible over the roof of the Temple seemed to sneer at them as it slid its way into the oblivion before dawn. At the fringes of the Empire, the setting of the moon heralded the inevitable beginning of day: the moment before the Ascension. The hurried camp of the Empire's guard lay below, illuminated by lantern and globe light. There was very little time to act.

"We have the advantage of surprise," Zu said as he marked their position in the snow with his staff. "I found openings in the walls here, and here. There are thirty guards around the perimeter, perhaps another dozen or so hidden, and maybe fifty more men in the buildings. I'm not sure how many are guarding the Temple. The ruins are surprisingly well preserved, but the defenses can work to our advantage. I don't think these Temples were built to withstand much of a fight. The Monks probably depended on their distance and the mountains to get take care of their enemies. If we can focus them into narrow, defensible breaks, their superior numbers won't matter — for awhile."

The Black Whirlwind grunted his approval. "A hundred strong now only because they haven't met me yet!" boasted The Black Whirlwind.

Zu ignored him and continued to point to his crude map. "Dawn Star, you and Snow will circle this pass to the Temple. Black Whirlwind, Ya Zhen, and I will lead a frontal assault here, where we'll be visible but defensible. Our attack should give the two of you enough of a distraction to get inside. The rest is up to you to stop that bastard, Sky." He said this in particular to Snow, and gave her a look of challenge that seemed to promise his spear would be ready if she even blinked the wrong way.

"No pressure," said Snow, and returned a carefully blank stare. Foolish as a full out frontal assault was, her eyes revealed nothing. But she had to agree it was the best plan they had available. And yet, just the mere mention of Sky's name made her heart beat faster and a cold sweat formed on her hands. She really couldn't afford this kind of distraction. She tried to tell herself that it wasn't Sky, it was a monster she was fighting, a murderer, a different person entirely… yet trepidation crept into her heart; a cold shiver snaked down her spine. What would happen when they came to blows? There was no question of if. Could she kill him if need be, this man who looked like Sky?

The Black Whirlwind's fingers were twitching with glee. "The center of the action — just where I like to be!" he chortled.

"I don't agree," said Ya Zhen.

"You have a better plan?" growled Zu.

"Yes, I do." The demon gave Zu a long, flat stare, deliberately slow, knowing their time was short. "You want to storm the entrance? Go ahead, that is an imperially stupid idea. I'm going to go to the Temple and _I do know a better way in_."

"Let me guess," said Snow, "You'll only tell us if we take you along?"

"Ironic, isn't it? Sneaking back into the Temple of your birth through the exact passage Sun Li stole you out of."

Not a muscle twitched on Snow's face. But something must have shown in her eyes, because the demon's smile nearly split Wildflower's face in half.

"If this passage is so great," Zu glowered, "Is there some reason we're not all there _right now_?"

_It reeks of trap_, Snow agreed, but out loud she said: "No, I think Ya Zhen has the right idea. That passage is ancient and we don't know how easy it will be to get all of you into the Temple. It could be a deathtrap for us all if we're caught. We'll have better chances if Ya Zhen and I take the Temple." Snow raised her head haughtily, "After all, don't they still think I am their 'Empress'?" She hoped the bravado hid her own reservations. If it was a trap they were walking into, she wanted Dawn Star and Zu to have a chance at escaping.

"Ya Zhen and I know our way around," she said, looking pointedly at Zu. "We've been here before. Dawn Star, you, and Zin Bu need to be here to back The Black Whirlwind. Er, probably mostly just keep him from getting too carried away with the dismembering," she revised, eying the large man who was enthusiastically making "Whoosh! Krrthuncrchk!" noises out of the corner of his mouth as he mimed a blade in his hands.

"Snow—" Dawn Star began, and then stopped. She recognized that look in her friend's face, the set in her stance. It was a look that had preceded many battles, and in all but one, Snow had always come back, cut and bleeding, but victorious. It was a look that said, "I need to do this alone."

Though Dawn Star was no stranger to danger — in her twenty-five years she had lived through her share of war, and loss, and now the impending upheaval of her world — she had also learned the hard way the weight of leadership. There had to be someone the soldier could come back to. And so sometimes you sent your troops into battle, knowing they might not return. And so you stayed behind. It was a lesson more bitter than the blood it spilt, but warriors had to have something to fight for. She wondered if this new Snow had felt the same way about Sky. And did she know how he felt about her? Dawn Star looked into her friends eyes and saw the anguish there, and the determination. She made up her mind. Snow couldn't afford any other distractions in the fight.

Dawn Star nodded. "Alright."

"Dawn Star!" hissed Zu.

"You don't have much time," she continued, "You'd better go now."

Zu didn't like it, but his commander had spoken, and her word was all that there was left to fight for. Snow grasped her friend's hand fiercely for a moment, palm to elbow and elbow to palm in the gesture of martial respect, and then she and Ya Zhen were gone, back into the darkness of the tunnels.

"I don't like it," growled Zu, "Two traitors together? _Anything _can go wrong."

Dawn Star bit her lip almost hard enough to draw blood. Zu had voiced the exact fears in her heart, and somehow that made them more real, but she was resolved. And she believed in Snow.

"She's not the Monshuiye that ours became, Zu, and you know it. She's like Snow as I remembered her, before all this." _More haunted, and walks with the weight of the Empire on her shoulders, perhaps_, Dawn Star mused, "But I believe in her." She looked boldly into the older man's eyes, "You said it yourself: what could have happened that day if you _had_ gone back, Zu? If you could have gone with her into the Assassin's fortress? Would things have been different? Could this have been avoided?" The catch in her voice spoke for everything that had already been lost, and again of what would have been.

"Dawn Star," without thinking, his hands reached out and caught hers and held the two fiercely together. "I…"

"I know." Her smile was soft, worn. Her hands were so small, so small, he thought. Lines of worry and patience had etched themselves into the corners of her young face. The pain broke his heart. All he had ever wanted to do was make that pain go away. He bowed his head. "I should have died for you," he muttered into the collar of his robe, I should have been the one to die that day."

"Zu…" She leaned into him, her forehead against his neck, her heart to his, "Don't. I _need _you. I may have already lost my father, and so many times over, I have lost my friends. If we survive this day, don't ever leave me again."

Trembling, his hand reached up and cupped her chin, wet now with tears. "Dawn Star," he whispered.

"Don't look now," yelled The Black Whirlwind, "But it looks like the fighting in the Temple just started!"


	21. Part XXI

**Part XXI: The Temple**

* * *

Weak light seeped through cracks in the stone above them. Snow and Ya Zhen stood at the dusty bottom of an old well, the cylindrical shape curling upwards into a cone some twenty feet above. Raising the Dire Flame in her hand revealed a base that could comfortably fit nine or ten men, shoulder to shoulder, but as the walls narrowed, the stonework condensed into a three foot opening at the top. Her light barely outlined the large slab covering the well's mouth.

The well had long since dried up, eliminating slippery handholds, but it would still be a climb, cramming fingers into narrow gaps in the stonework, body at the mercy of the strength of mere fingertips, and most importantly - there was the stone slab. She could blast it with a good fireball, but that would alert the Lotus Assassins to their presence, and it would be all too easy to pick them off like fish in a barrel at the bottom of the well. If she waited until she was near the top, however, she wouldn't be able to position herself to use the attack "I hope this is where you spring your devious trap," she said to Ya Zhen, "It would save me the trouble of a climb."

"Not yet," said the demon-girl absentmindedly. Her serpent's tongue circled her lips, and the sussurration echoed in the chamber. "You haven't even gotten me the gem, yet. Siding with you is still the most advantageous move at this time." Snow didn't like the way Wildflower's ruby eyes gleamed in the dark.

"Suggestions for removing that slab, then?"

"I would say stand about five feet back."

Snow nodded and backed away. She understood the rough shape of the plan. The demon wasn't telling her the full story, but there was no time for lengthy interrogations. This alternate version of Ya Zhen had had five more years to roam the earth as his playground than the Ya Zhen she had known, but they traveled together long enough for her to know that there was more ambition in the toad demon than there were clouds in the sky. He was after more than just the jewel. But it was not yet time. Snow retreated with the light into the tunnel that had once led water into the sacred temple of the Water Dragon, and in the shadows, Ya Zhen's form began to grow.

A dark red aura gathered about the girl, rising like vapors from the earth. As Wildflower inhaled, the streams of energy entered into her body and began expanding. Wildflower's torso bulged, her neck seemed to sink into her collar and her arms flattened and lengthened to thrice their original size. In another red burst, the toad demon shed his human shape and in one mighty leap rocketed skywards towards the blocked opening; the large, distended toad body scraped against the stonework of the well and collided with the slab, smashing through it with the force of an entire team of oxen. From the surface it seemed as if a giant beast had exploded into the moonlight air amidst a cloud of rubble and snow. Red eyes gleamed and the scent of iron colored the air. The Lotus Assassins on guard opened their mouths to give a shout of surprise, but quickly deteriorated into lengthy screams. There was smoke in the night sky, and the hall resounded with the sound of talons clashing against swords as the toad demon charged. Ya Zhen grinned to himself, stretching muscles too long confined, rejoicing in the exertion of battle.

In two bounds, Snow catapulted herself up the side of the stone walls, using the ricochet impact as her feet touched the sides to boost her ascent. She came up fighting, fists flashing into black armor she and Ya Zhen cleared the rubble of the well beneath the Temple and forced their way up the stone steps. "Stone Immortal!" Snow cried, and with practiced ease sent a hail of rocks hurtling at the oncoming guards, scattering their ranks. A few stray rocks shattered again glass globes set around the central altar. The little lights exploded with a sickly green and yellow sparkle. She dodged around a heavyset Lotus Assassin while Ya Zhen's large, talons came crashing down on his head. Warm liquid hit her sides. She focused on the lights, her precise shots sending small storms of rocks at each globe until the world was lit only in the shadow of moonlight. Lotus Assassins fought as well as any man in the dark, but the Imperial guards stumbled audibly over each other, striking wildly, and Snow helped a few along their way directly into the blow of the Lotus Assassins' green hands. Ya Zhen would have no trouble finding his targets, and she was already navigating through her enemies by focusing on their auras. She struck right and left, forcing a path to the altar before her.

Three Lotus Assasins converged before her, brandishing their weapons. The one in the center and the two flanking her sides moved in perfect balance using a weapon stance she didn't recognize. Their whirring blades forced her a step back. In the dimness, she saw only a glint of the metal and relied heavily on the aura of their hands to doge. Snow started a bit as her back hit against the wall. Too far. She took a deep breath and tried to relax as she allowed them to approach, waiting for the right moment. Feeling the rough bricks beneath her fingers, she hugged the wall as the assassin in the center came rushing at her, his blade spinning forward like a drill. She sprang, twisting midair as the assassin on her right let loose with a volley of hidden darts. Her vertical leap took her upwards beyond the weapons, and her feet kicked sideways against the wall, sending her into the open area beyond the trio of Assassins. She clipped the last assassin's shoulder as she landed, the force of her entire weight crashing on him even as she turned around again and sent stone blades from her hand into the throats of her two standing attackers.

From the edge of the altar, she sensed a new aura emerge from the shadows, followed by a deeper darkness; the emptiness of a presence that had no soul.

More Lotus Assassins surged in through the doorway to the lower courtyard. Aware of a new danger, but with no time to study it, Snow kicked, boosting the attack with a surge of chi energy as she brought her leg around. The kick gouged a hole in the temple rock and sent pebbles flying. Before the loose masonry could hit the floor her hand shot out and, guiding the projectiles with her chi, she sent the rocks pummeling towards the new opponents with the force of the Stone Immortal move known as "Immortal Descends from the Mountains."

The dark figure moved, slow as if it walked through water, and yet somehow fast enough to intercept Snow's powerful attack. To her surprise, the rock projectiles clattered harmlessly to the ground as they reached the figure, it didn't appear to notice.

"What is that?" Snow yelled to Ya Zhen as the figure approached. The demon made no reply as it hurtled itself into the center of a group of Lotus Assassins, pushing them out into the balcony, roaring as he went. Without guidance, Snow dropped into a Heavenly Wave stance, unsure of the newcomer's abilities.

The figure was large, hooded, and moved with an animal ferocity. It glided into the center of the temple stones, and the Assassins stopped their attacks as it passed, reverently standing aside. The cloak swirled with a life almost of its own.

"Who are you?" Snow demanded directly, unnerved that she could sense no aura to the being. Even the dead had souls. The figure did not respond. "Where is he?" she asked, although she did not expect a reply.

The figure raised a hand. Snow tensed, ready for a blow. But instead it merely pulled back its hood revealing a black lacquered mask contorted in an eternal scowl.

"Death's Hand," she hissed, and immediately shifted into a Tiger's Claw stance.

The figure shook its head, a shrill echoing, laugh resonating from its mouthpiece. It bowed to Snow, almost comically, and as it rose, placed both hands on its head and removed the mask.


End file.
